BICYCLES
FOR EDUCATION

CONTEXT

In Senegal, hundreds of children walk more than 5 kilometers to school. They wake up before dawn, barely have breakfast, and then start walking. When school is over, they walk back the same distance. They arrive home tired and without the energy to study.

And the next day, start over.

A LITTLE HISTORY

In 2015 we visited Senegal for the first time.

Our goal was to assess the suitability of providing bicycles to students to go to school, as we had already been doing in India in collaboration with the Vicente Ferrer Foundation .

We started by "donating" secondhand bicycles we brought from Spain. Hundreds of bicycles we collected from individuals and tried to repair as best we could before sending them to Senegal. Little by little, we realized that this wasn't the way to go. The bicycles broke down too quickly, and instead of helping the community, they became a burden, obsolete junk that ended up joining the pile of materials donated in good faith from Europe and soon abandoned due to their poor condition, lack of spare parts, etc.

So—after several crises that nearly brought us to the brink of abandonment—we decided to take the plunge and think big. If the problem we wanted to solve was access to education, we had to make the best bicycles available to students. And in 2020, we created the baobike .

It was a turning point. The project began to roll.

Ten years later, we realize how much we've learned. We went with a classic vision of aid and cooperation: Give others what you think they need . We also went with a challenge: Figure out what happens the day after the bike deliveries .

Regarding the first point, we've discovered that to develop a successful project in a territory other than our own, the first thing necessary is a strong dose of cultural humility. So, a good part of our experience has been based on learning from the "other," listening to the "other," and building alongside the "other" until we've created a " we ." Regarding the second point... one day we'll write a book and tell you about it.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE

Facilitate access to education for children and young people through bicycles.

PROJECT PHASES

Previous diagnosis

Signing of the agreement

Construction of infrastructure

Training of mechanics

List of applicant students

Preparation and delivery of the bikes

Review and storage

Before starting a new project, we diagnose and evaluate the school's suitability, its management capacity, the number of students who need access to the transportation program, and the bikeability of the paths.

If the school meets the requirements, we sign an agreement between the two parties (BsF and Lycée) outlining the commitments and obligations of each party.

Once the agreement was signed, we built the necessary infrastructure for the bicycles to function properly: a repair shop, a hangar to store the bikes during the rainy season, and a parking lot to leave the bikes while students were in class.

The center is responsible for selecting and proposing candidates for the position of mechanic in the center's workshop. Once selected, they receive several weeks of training alongside the BsF team of mechanics.

The center is responsible for communicating with and registering students who wish to access the program. They must live more than 2 km from the center and pay a fee of 6,000 CFA francs (€9) to access a bicycle. The center uses student contributions to pay the mechanic's salary.

Once the students are registered, we prepare the necessary bikes, and the center's staff delivers them to the beneficiaries. Each bike has a code assigned to each student. This will be their bike for the entire course.

At the end of the school year, students return their bicycles to the center. The mechanic, along with the BSF Senegal team, inspects them and leaves them ready for the next school year.