Global Engagement Profile - SchoolCycle Initiative
Names: Lauren Bohn and Zoe Fox, SchoolCycle Initiative
Home Country: USA
Global Engagement: Lauren Bohn and Zoe Fox partnered with the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up organization to launch the SchoolCycle initiative. SchoolCycle provides bicycles to girls in Malawi Africa and Guatemala to enable them to travel extreme distances required get to and from school.
Inspiration and Impact: Lauren and Zoe, two journalists, visited the Republic of Malawi Africa on a United Nations Foundation reporting fellowship. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and is rarely covered in news stories. More than half of the population lives below the international poverty line, less than 25% of girls finish primary school and among those who finish primary school, only 9% graduate from secondary school.
When reporting in Malawi, it became clear to Lauren and Zoe that one of the biggest barriers to attending school, facing girls, was the exhausting and sometimes unsafe commute. Some girls were required to walk more than 20 miles to and from school (each way). To help facilitate a more manageable commute, a British charity had donated 30 bikes to girls in the extremely remote Mangochi district of Malawi that resulted in a remarkably improved commute for some girls and increased their chances of graduating from school. Lauren and Zoe wanted to help expand significantly the number of girls with access to bicycles for transportation to and from school.
Lauren and Zoe returned home from Malawi and approached the United Nation Foundation’s Girl Up campaign to help them find a way to provide bicycles to more girls in Malawi and in other countries. The SchoolCycle global giving campaign was launched with a goal of providing bicycles to 550 adolescent girls in Malawi to increase their access to education and other services. In just one year, SchoolCycle raised more than 100 thousand dollars to provide bicycles to 550 adolescent girls in Malawi. The SchoolCycle program has recently been expanded to Guatemala.
Resources/References:
Girl Up: https://girlup.org/
Malawi:
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/10/02/northwestern-graduate-teams-up-with-un-to-give-bicycles-to-needy-african-girls/
http://unfoundationblog.org/schoolcycle-helping-girls-get-to-school/
https://girlup.org/helping-girls-go-places-one-bike-time/
http://girltalkhq.com/these-bicycles-are-helping-girls-in-malawi-stay-in-school-change-their-futures/
Guatemala:
https://girlup.org/about/press-releases/girl-up-announces-expansion-schoolcycle-initative-guatemala/
http://campaignforeducationusa.org/global-action-week/impact-detail/schoolcycle-how-one-bike-can-change-the-life-of-a-girl
