Earth Activism

Bicycles offer a lifeline in rural Zambia - CNN.com

STORY HIGHLIGHTS * World Bicycle Relief has distributed 30,000 bikes in Zambia * One headmaster says they are more valuable than cars * School roll has increased from 300 to 867 since bikes were given to pupils Lusaka, Zambia (CNN) -- In rural Zambia, a bicycle is one of the most important possessions someone can have. At one school, when they were given out to pupils by World Bicycle Relief, the roll increased from 300 to 867 pupils. Headteacher Michael Gogolola explained: "Bicycles in Africa, especially in this part of Zambia, they are more valuable than a vehicle, because they use them even for grinding mill, they use them for transport to the hospital, to the clinic and to the school. "When we came to this school, the enrolment was 300, now when the World Bicycle Relief came with bicycles, even the girls who had left school, just because they heard about the bicycles, they came back to school."

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