Kip Nickel is a Traverse Bay Sunrise Rotarian and the project leader for his club's Malawi Secondary Schools Bicycle Share Project.
Kip is inviting Clubs in District 6290 to participate in the bicycle project. The project seeks to improve secondary school access in Malawi by providing reliable transportation for those living more than three miles from school. Additional benefits include improved attendance, energy level, academics, safety and a likely long-term increase in graduation rates. The "reliable transportation" is in the form of rugged Buffalo Bikes.
The project selected four secondary schools in the Mangochi District, each of which received 50-60 bikes in the summer of 2021. The bikes were assembled in Malawi and looked after by a repair man trained by the project. The result?
- Students love the bikes, which are changing their lives.
- Discipline has improved at the schools.
- Each school has different challenges.
- There are more required repairs than expected.
- There are many more students that need bikes.
- Teachers as well as students need bikes.
Kip urged Benzie Sunrise Rotary to leverage our global service impact and become an active part in project planning and implementation. Additional information and many photographs are available in Kip's PowerPoint slide show.