Riding into the future

How has owning a bicycle changed your life?

Stop to answer this question and you will find yourself with a list as long as your arm. Riding with friends? Riding to the shops? Riding away from trouble? Riding to school? Remember the amazingly unstable jump that you and your friends set up in the street? Having your friends dare you to speed towards that thing was an important moment in so many of our lives but clearing the jump and landing safely defined us.  These kinds of acts build the confidence that we carry through to our adult life. And those memories of a childhood well-spent stay with us forever.

As a part of our OneVietnam Matching Grant Challenge, we’re highlighting the importance of the bicycle for young children living in Vietnam. Last week we discussed the ways that owning a bicycle changes lives.  The Nguyen family can attest; sons Tai and Vinh no longer have to walk miles and miles just to reach the front door of their school. Instead, they fly through the countryside, cheeky smiles intact. Like us, they’re confidence is blooming; their bicycle has changed their lives.

There are many more families who could use a life-changing gift. We’d like to help them keep their children in school. We’d like to help them perform basic tasks and be able to travel greater distances when emergencies arise.

This month, One Vietnam have challenged us to raise $2500 in contributions to be matched by an anonymous donor and this week we’d like to throw the challenge over to you. We’re going to introduce three families in this post; we hope that you can spare a small contribution today.

Linh and Chien Nguyen have three children. All three of their children are excellent students and diligently study to excel at school. Their eldest daughter, Quynh has already received a biology incentive award. Linh suffers from a chronic lung disease, forcing Chien to be the sole breadwinner for the family.  The children often borrow notebooks and textbooks to complete their assignments, as their parent cannot spare money to cover these expenses. A bicycle would go change their lives and the lives of their three children and drastically improve transport for the family.

Huong and Loc are extremely dutiful children. Huong helps her mother, Ly, make brooms to sell at the local market while continuing to study in middle school.  The family live away from the main road and a trip to school is particularly long and bumpy. Despite challenges involved in getting to school, both Huong and Loc never miss class.

Thi Nguyen lives in the district of Ky Son. She is an only parent raising her son, Manh, despite having suffered terrible leg injuries in a motorcycle accident. Manh is an excellent student. He realizes the potential that good schooling could bring for his and his mother’s future. Additionally, Manh is a local soccer star, with the potential of playing professionally when he is older. A bicycle would contribute considerably to his means of getting to school and to soccer practice.

All three of our families would benefit immensely from your help today. A bicycle contribution costs $70 and will help set these students on the right path to achieving their dreams. You can contribute as much or as little as you want—a single dollar will help us reach our goal-- and anything contributed in the next two weeks on our OneVietnam page (www.onevietnam.org/hscv) will be doubled up to $2500. Something as simple as bicycle can change a life. It helped change yours and mine, so let’s work together to share with these families today.