Getting Girls on Bikes in Suhom, Ghana

Over the past 25 years, Village Bicycle Project has distributed over 130,000 bikes to Ghana and Sierra Leone. Our goal is always to deliver 50 percent of the bikes to women and girls in any participating community – and sometimes that means taking time, resources and community commitment to address gender gaps in cycling.

Earlier this year, we visited Suhum in Ghana, about 40 miles north of Accra. We had planned to deliver 100 bikes to students, equally to boys and girls. Unfortunately, we realized none of the girls signed up for the program knew how to ride a bike. We completed the program, distributing the bikes to male students, and committed to coming back to the community to address this gender disparity with a holistic approach.

Addressing the gender gap in cycling begins with Learn to Ride. Over a series of months, our trainers will teach Learn to Ride classes to girls in the community, making sure every girl who wants to learn can. Then, we will conduct another series of one-day workshops, distributing bikes to the girls who were unable to participate the first time. Lastly, we will start a bike library at the school, where we long-term loan bikes to students, boys and girls, to use to travel back and forth to school.

Suhom is just one community, but we take this holistic approach to get girls on bikes everywhere we work in Ghana and Sierra Leone. Your donation ensures that in every community we visit, girls get the support they need to access biking as a tool for education. When students receive a bike, their grades and attendance improve, and the likelihood that they continue with their education increases.