The project, which is being implemented by Child Fund, MoBSE, UNICEF and EFANet, is being funded by Education Above all Foundation under the Qatari Foundation.
The donation, according to officials, is aimed at complementing government efforts in not only enrolling children in schools, but also ensuring that children who are enrolled in schools are retained.
The 500 bicycles will be distributed across all the regions of the country with 191 bicycles going to Upper River Region, 61 to CRR South, 52 to CRR North, 46 to LRR, 104 bicycles to NBR and 46 bicycles to WCR.
In order to ensure the safety for the students riding the bicycles, Child Fund also donated helmets and reflector vests to the beneficiaries. Among the factors contributing to children going out of schools, the officials further went on, is due to some communities' distance to schools, hence the bicycles are meant to address those challenges.
Nfamara Dabo, Programmes and Sponsorship Director for Child Fund, who deputised for the Child Fund Country Coordinator, reaffirmed Child Fund’s continuous resolve to the holistic development of children in the country. “We have our life stage approach to programming where we want to see that infants are healthy and secure, children are educated and confident, and youths have skills and involved,” he said.
Child Fund, he continued, is focusing on the holistic development of the children. “We want to ensure that every child successfully transitions through the different stages of their lives. As a result of this, the Child Fund is working with MoBSE, UNICEF and other partners with funding from Educate a Child to launch this project with the objectives of enrolling and retaining children who are supposed to be in school but they are not in schools.”
“When we did our initial research, we gathered that over 66, 000 children are supposed to be in schools but are not in schools. In this quick assessment, we realised that various factors are responsible such as disabilities, distance and lack of finance.”
Alhagie Jallow, Principal Education Officer (PEO) for Region One Directorate, thanked Child Fund for their continued support to the country’s education sector.
“The donated items will go a long way in complementing government’s efforts in achieving socio-economic development of the country. The donation is also part of measures in ensuring that students have access to schools which will improve quality and relevant education in the country.”
“Distance is one of the barriers of retaining children in schools. Therefore, this donation will address that and increase students’ punctuality. “Achieving quality education in the country is the collective responsibility of all stakeholders including parents. We hope that the bicycles will be put to good use and it will reach the target beneficiaries.”
Pa Gumbo Touray, regional education director for Region 5 in CRR North, said: “The donation will ensure that children come to school and on time especially those coming from far distance.” He urged the beneficiaries to ensure that the bicycles reach the identified schools.
In a separate development, Child Fund also donated 800 school bags to its partners. The bags will be distributed to Foni Din Ding Federation and Din-Ding Yiriwa Federation among others.
