Cycle to School
Description
The Cycle to School project is an educational empowerment program at community level addressing student retention, attendance and performance outcomes. Children without a bicycle walking long distances to school face many challenges including increased tardiness, exhaustion and safety risks. Adolescent girls, in particular, are at risk for complete withdrawal from the educational system. Research shows that education is an essential element to end the cycle of disease (like HIV) and poverty. 
While the scope of the problem is broad, one strategy to increase student attendance, enrollment and retention is safe, reliable transportation to school. The Cycle to School project is a cost effective way to improve educational outcomes for adolescent girls. In this project, FABIO ensures beneficiaries living far from school are selected based on low attendance, punctuality, vulnerability, age and gender. The project ensures that selected students sign and own contracts, which state the bicycle becomes his/her property which is primarily used and maintained for accessing education. After successful sensitization about cycle to school, the student has an elementary capacity in bicycle maintenance. The program’s success is measured through routine bicycle usage, change in student attendance for girls and boys, change in average time to travel to school and change in academic performance at the end of each term.
Evaluation
Through this project there has been a reduced number of young people dropping out of school and an increase in the income per capita of the family since the bicycle is multipurpose hence improving on the standard of living. During the Covid-19 lockdown, when most of the schools were closed, the bicycles were also used for other purposes especially for upcoming business ideas.
Success Stories
Bubugo
Hisamba Eddy
Hisamba Eddy, age 20 years, student of Kira view, S.3: coming from a polygamist family he is the first born out of 19 children from his father. During the period when the schools were closed, he was able to use the bicycle as a means to an end such as fetching for brick laying. Apart from this, he used bicycle to get animals feeds such as grass. He plans to sell the bricks and buy a cow as another way of saving money. Since he is coming from a large family, he has to work hard. In the future he plans to do a course of Electric Engineering to become an electrician.
Lubani
Mudondo Goret
Mudondo Goret, age 16 years, student of Lubani SS, S. 2: Her parents are peasants and they do commercial farming at small scale. She is the first born out of nine and as a whole family they use a bicycle to fetch water for the plants in the garden. As their main income, through this kind of farming the parents are able to pay school fees for all the children. The bicycle has made the farming more sustainable for them as a family. Furthermore, the family uses the bicycle as a means of transport to visit the neighboring village at the trading center which is 5km away in Ndiwansi village.
Kilanga Village
Mwesigwa Gilbert
Mwesigwa Gilbert, age 16 years, a student of Kiira View, S.2: During this period of the lockdown he was able to use the bicycle for fetching water for brick laying and he was able to earn 1,000,000 USh. He saved some of the money for his school fees and bought a pig at 100,000 USh. Through the bicycle and his business mind his dream to become a mechanical engineer is coming a bit closer.
Bubugo
Kasubo Salama
Kasubo Salama, age 16 years, a student of Hillside, S.3: At first, she got a bicycle to reach school. Salama comes from a humble family and during this lockdown she has become the bread winner for the entire family. During this time, her mother developed pressure and suffered from stroke and her father is a builder who stopped working as a result of the lockdown. Salama started managing her mother’s business of cooking food at Kamuli stage. She was riding a bicycle every day for a distance of 2 km to reach her place of work. Now, Salama is able to save for her school fees and also support her entire family through this business. Before she started to manage the business, life was very difficult to the extent that they would not manage to get basic needs such as sugar and soap. Salama does not spend on transport by virtue of using a bicycle.