Education Malawi Project #68439

Girls on the Go

by World Bicycle Relief UK

Project Report | Jan 23, 2026
Girls on the Go - Project Update Report Jan-26

By Thomas Richards | Development & Engagement Manager

World Bicycle Relief’s full six-month report covering the period July–December 2025 is currently in progress and will be shared in approximately three months, following the completion of our standard data collection and verification processes.

While this report is forthcoming, we would like to assure supporters that programme activities are continuing as planned. Bicycle distributions are actively underway, and students across our operating countries are receiving Buffalo Bicycles alongside the support systems that ensure long-term use, including access to trained mechanics, spare parts, and community oversight.

Building on the progress outlined in our most recent report, Girls on the Go continues to address barriers to education by improving safe, reliable access to schools—particularly for girls living far from classrooms. Community engagement, school partnerships, and program monitoring remain central to our work during this period.

We are grateful for the continued support that makes this progress possible and look forward to sharing a comprehensive update with verified results and insights in our next full report.

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Sep 29, 2025
GIRLS ON THE GO (JAN - JUNE 2025)

By THOMAS RICHARDS | DEVELOPMENT & ENGAGEMENT MANAGER WBR UK

Over three years (2024-2026), World Bicycle Relief (WBR) intends to distribute bicycles and supportive programming to 66,000 primary and secondary school students, prioritizing girls. Through a durable bicycle, access to mechanics and spare parts, and community- driven oversight from a local Bicycle Supervisory Committee, Girls on the Go will address key impediments to girls’ education: long distances (3km+) to schools and a dearth of transport options.Thanks to your support, 3,881 bicycles were funded this period— transforming the daily journeys of students, especially girls, and empowering them to pursue their education and future with fewer barriers. In addition, our education partners purchased 317 bicycles, bringing the total to 4,198 girl students reached. Your generosity goes beyond a single bicycle, multiplying its impact as WBR matches partner purchases and reinvests bicycle sales revenue to open doors for even more students. By combining philanthropic funding with social enterprise sales, every contribution not only delivers immediate impact but also helps scale programs and build sustainable mobility solutions. This blended approach ensures that Girls on the Go can continue breaking down barriers for the next generation of young women.Together, we are making incredible strides in mobilizing adolescent girls across Sub-Saharan Africa and Colombia, providing girls with sustainable bicycles with access to spares and repairs that will revolutionize their access to education.

Girls on the Go activities occurred during a challenging economic environment, as rural families dealt with high inflation, unpredictable weather patterns, and recovery after a severe drought in southern Africa. Across our six operating countries, WBR partnered with Ministries of Education to identify priority regions and schools. As a result, we reached 44 new schools and helped more students access education through improved mobility. We are continuing to expand our footprint in Tanzania—our seventh operating country— and establish partnerships in the education sector. We look forward to sharing more updates about our progress in Tanzania in the next report. Coupled with a supportive bicycle ecosystem, students received monthly preventative maintenance and repairs at school by WBR-trained community-based mechanics to keep their bicycles on the road for the long term.

Key highlights this period include:From Student to Engineer: A story on the impact of mobility for a young student in Kenya— and the transformation years later— was a featured article in the Daily Nation, an online publication in Kenya. Stella received a Buffalo Bicycle from WBR in 2016. Today, she is a skilled engineer with World Bicycle Relief’s assembly team.Community Engagement: The program worked in close collaboration with parents, teachers, and local leaders to promote girls’ education and ensure community ownership through Bicycle Supervisory Committees, implemented in all six of our operating countries.

Buffalo Academy: 1,043 students participated in the Buffalo Academy initiative in Colombia. These students now have basic bicycle mechanics knowledge, empowering them to take care of their bicycles, build a sense of ownership, and safely access essential services such as health care, markets, or even use their bicycles to transport siblings or family members.As we look toward the second half of the year, we are committed to expanding access, deepening program support, and continuing to remove barriers to education for girls through the Power of Bicycles.

Learnings:

World Bicycle Relief expanded operations to Uganda in 2023. With a population of 47.2 million, 74% of Ugandans live in rural areas, where the World Bank estimates that 47% of individuals experience mobility poverty, negatively impacting development outcomes. For example, 42% of Uganda’s rural population lives below the international poverty line of $2.15 a day, nearly one in three children is classified as stunted, and only one in four children complete their primary school education. Mobility poverty is particularly acute in refugee and host communities due to early pregnancy and child marriage for girls, child labor, and longer distances from schools.During this reporting period, WBR conducted a baseline survey on 594 students in the Bidibidi and Nakivale refugee settlements in Uganda. The study aimed to assess mobility patterns of the students prior to the distribution of the Buffalo Bicycles. A questionnaire is administered to understand various aspects of their life prior to receiving a bicycle. It queries more about mobility issues, such as areas frequently visited and the time and distances covered to access education.Key findings from the study include:1.Transportation Mode: The data indicated that without Buffalo Bicycles, the majority (90%) of the students walked to and from school every day they attended school.2. Distance and Time Traveled: The baseline survey further indicated that while students travel 5 kms on average, one way, the furthest distance travelled to school (one-way) was between 8–15 kms (about 9.32 miles).3. Absenteeism: The study also discovered that 54% of the students missed school at least once in the week preceding the baseline survey. The main reasons for missing school are long distances travelled to school, taking care of sick household members, lack of transport to school, and lack of school fees.4. Punctuality: Many students exhibit occasional tardiness, with 63% arriving late.5. Child protection: At least 30% of the students indicate feeling unsafe while walking long distances through bad roads to and from school.As a next step, we will measure the impact of Buffalo Bicycles over time on students by comparing annual outcome data against the baseline study data to assess improvement in education outcomes. Your support ensures that young girls in upper primary and secondary schools can attend classes safely, save time on their daily commutes, and focus on their studies with greater confidence and determination.

Impact:

World Bicycle Relief launched Girls on the Go in 2024 with a three-year (2024-2026) goal to improve educational outcomes for students, with a focus on girls, through increased mobility. In the short-term, girls are expected to experience improved school attendance and reduced tardiness.Student retention, reduction in absenteeism, and bicycle usage metrics showed strong performance this period to achieve our Girls on the Go goal. In the first half of 2025, 3,881 Buffalo Bicycles were funded through Girls on the Go and distributed directly to girls living farthest from school. An additional 317 bicycles were purchased by our education partners, bringing the total to 4,198 girls reached this period— girls who are gaining freedom and agency with a bicycle to join extracurricular school activities that build skills and confidence. We are behind in our 70% bicycle allocation to girls' target, as we learn that in certain cultural contexts, such as Uganda, this is proving more complex than in our more established countries. In new schools we reach, we continue to promote the school ownership model to multiply the impact of bicycles for multiple classes of students. Bicycle usage exceeds our 85% target, indicating that our bicycle ecosystem is functioning well. Below is a snapshot of our progress so far this year. Thank you for investing in Girls on the Go!

Looking ahead:

At World Bicycle Relief, learning is integral to our approach. We incorporate ongoing monitoring, assessments, post-distribution evaluations, and direct feedback from participants and community stakeholders. Identifying new strategic partners is also key to scaling mobility solutions and impact. We look forward to sharing outcomes from upcoming assessments and partner activities in the next report.In Kenya, an assessment of the School Ownership Model is underway, including collecting information on bicycle usage from students.
In Zimbabwe, the team plans to facilitate coordination meetings with school focal persons responsible for bicycle programs at schools. This platform acts as a learning hub and peer-to-peer review session where participants share best practices for managing the program in schools.The Zambia team is developing a partnership with GEWEL (Girls' Education and Women's Empowerment and Livelihoods) under the Keeping Girls in School project.
The Uganda team will be conducting a coordination meeting with our Education partners, including with our partner Promoting Equality in African Schools (PEAS), to share experiences of Buffalo Bicycles.We also have a high number of bicycles planned for distribution over the next six months (July-December 2025) in Colombia, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia. As we look to the future, we remain committed to deepening our impact and expanding our reach. We are confident that with your continued support, we can bring the transformative power of mobility to even more girls. In the months ahead, even more girls—including in Tanzania, where the program is expanding—will experience this same freedom and confidence as we increase bicycle distributions.The future is bright for Girls on the Go. When students have tools that meet their needs and have access to education and other essential services, they can break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.

Attachments:

2025 GotG Mid-Year-Report (PDF)

1 Attachment

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Jun 2, 2025
Girls on the Go Impact Report

By Thomas Richards | Fundraising & Marketing Manager WBR UK

Around the world, about 122 million girls1 are currently not attending school – including 12 million children2 who never enrolled and will likely live out their lives having never set foot in a classroom. A majority of these out-of-school children are girls. Research3 shows that proximity to school is one of the most important determinants of primary school enrollment. In low and middle-income countries, the long walk to school amplifies the already considerable challenges facing rural girls including poverty, insecurity and violence, and social norms hostile or indifferent to girls’ education. IN ZAMBIA children walk an average of more than 90 minutes to get to school each day.4 The walk can leave girls exhausted and vulnerable to harassment and assault and can deepen their family’s poverty by preventing them from helping on the family farm or making ends meet before or after school. Due to daily chores such as fetching water and fuel (girls are traditionally responsible for fetching water and fuel in rural areas), girls may be forced to make part of their journey before dawn or after dusk. In the face of these challenges, many parents, fearful for their daughters’ safety or concerned about making ends meet, pull their daughters out of school. According to UNESCO5, just 1 percent of the poorest girls in low-income countries complete secondary school. This was exacerbated by COVID-19, which significantly increased adolescent pregnancies, child marriage, and pressure on girls to help their families who slid deeper into poverty.

GETTING GIRLS TO SCHOOL

Working to remove the obstacles to education not only transforms girls’ futures but also the world.Until recently, governments and funders working to increase girls’ enrollment and attendance focused their efforts on three levers: building more schools, lowering school fees, and conditional cash transfers to families. Researchers6 have found that building more schools can be effective, but in many rural areas can lead to an educational model based on sub-scale one-room schoolhouses incapable of delivering high-quality education. A robust global body of evidence has found that getting girls to enroll in school and keeping them attending for as long as possible is one of the most powerful levers for empowering girls. Educating girls can have a number of positive impacts, including: •Higher future earnings•Reduced exploitative practices such as child marriage•Improved health outcome•Sustainable economic growthResearch from the World Bank7 has shown that reducing distances and addressing transport to school for girls increases attendance and decreases the likelihood of dropping out.

EVIDENCE THAT BICYCLES HELP GIRLS GET TO SCHOOL AND STAY IN SCHOOL

There is increasing recognition, based on data from Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Colombia, and India,8 and a high-quality randomized control trial in Zambia, that bicycles can serve as an effective conditional non-cash transfer to help girls get to school and keep them there. World Bicycle Relief has documented a similar impact in its bicycles for education programs around the world. To date, these programs have distributed specially-designed Buffalo bicycles to more than 280,000 students, 70 percent of whom are girls.For the last ten years the Ministry of Education in Zambia has partnered with World Bicycle Relief to help 53,900 rural girls get to school quickly and safely through a cost-effective, locally managed program. Girls enrolled in the program sign “study to own” contracts with their community, pledging to complete their studies in return for use and eventual ownership of the bicycle. In addition to providing rural girls with commutes of more than three kilometers each way with specially designed bicycles, the program trains local mechanics to keep those bicycles in the service of the girls for years to come.

A rigorous independent randomized control trial and other subsequent evaluations of the Zambia program, have found that girls provided with a bicycle:

• Were 19 percent less likely to drop out after owning a bicycle for two years• Reduced their absenteeism by 28 percent• Cut their commute time of nearly two hours each way by 33 percent, saving more than one hour a day•Reduced the number of days they were late to school by 66 percent• Scored higher on mathematics assessment• Reported feeling more in control of the decisions affecting their lives• Ranked themselves higher academically and had a greater belief in their potential to succeed in life• Experienced 22 percent less sexual harassment and/or teasing on their way to school

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