By Andrew Wasike and Magdalene Mukami
NAIROBI, Kenya
In Western Kenya, accessing education is a challenge for many schoolchildren, in large part because many of them have to travel more than 5 kilometers (3.11 miles) just to get to school.
Some of the students in the agricultural county of Kakamega leave home by 5 am, reach school by going through a mountainous region, and get back home only after 8 pm.
Such hurdles, including a poor infrastructure, have led many students to drop out of school, or dimmed the determination of those who stay.
For schoolgirls at Holy Cross Injira Secondary School and Lugala Secondary School in Kakamega, the hard road to school became much easier on Saturday when the development arm of the Turkish state, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), donated 200 bikes to girls who live 5 kilometers or farther from their schools.
Anadolu Agency visited the home of Diana Mulemi, a 16-year-old girl who lives in Shinyalu township.
She said that to get to school, she had to walk for more than an hour down valleys and up steep hills, across a river and down a steep slope, and in the evening would get home late with no time to study, only to wake up early the next morning to fetch firewood and start all over again.
"Things were bad, most of my friends dropped out of school, but for me I just held on,” she said, leaning on freshly kiln-baked bricks at her home.
“In the morning and at night it’s not safe for us, we don't have time to do anything, and then at times we run into men on the roads who harass us. Some girls agree to marry early and drop out of school, while some like me use longer routes to school to avoid those areas."
2-wheeled game-changer
But her new bike will change all that, she explained.
"Now that I have my bicycle, I’ll be able to manage my time and get to class fast. We’re going back to school next year on Jan. 3 and I’m looking forward to changing my life with the bikes that we’ve been given by the Turkish people.
“I want to be a doctor, and the bikes will help me improve my studies because I won’t sleep in class anymore as I won’t be tired and I’ll be able to concentrate."
Like Mulemi, hundreds of other girls on Saturday gathered in the heart of the Kakamega forest at a clearing where the 200 bicycles had been placed, each girl beaming to go home with a bicycle that will change their lives.
Emre Yuksek, TIKA’s head in the capital Nairobi, told Anadolu Agency that the bike donation is meant to promote gender parity in accessing quality education for girls in the remote town.
"Education comes first,” he said.
“As a generous donor, Turkey is helping partner countries in various fields.
"In Kenya, girls’ education has been fundamental in promoting economic and social development. However, these initiatives still fall short in addressing girls’ drop-out problem due to poverty, sexual discrimination, and of course early marriages and pregnancies."
Narrowing the gender gap
Yuksek said Kenya has among the world’s highest secondary school dropout rates among girls, a problem linked to poor infrastructure, poverty, gender inequality, early marriage, and child labor.
He said that by donating the 200 bicycles, TIKA hopes to improve girls' access to education in rural Kenya.
"This gesture is aimed at enabling access to education, reducing the time to get to school, and improving secondary school enrolment among adolescent girls,” he explained.
“Empowered girls are key to breaking the cycle of poverty for families and promoting a healthier and prosperous society."
Agnes Lukelesia, one of the first bike beneficiaries, said that with an extra backseat she will be able to give a ride to a friend who lives close to her school.
She thanked her Turkish benefactors, adding, "I hope to one day study medicine in Turkey".
