Working Overseas Archives

09/04/202111/06/2021

Bikes and Sport-for-development (S4D)

Bikes and Sport-for-development. Bicycles Create Change.com. 9th April 2021.

My PhD looks at how bicycles feature in West African girls’ access to secondary education.

This means I read widely about gender, geography, aid and development, education, mobility and innovative research methods.

I’ve been reviewing what has been done so far to help girls get to and from schools on bikes – and this has to lead me to Sport-for-development literature. Which I love!

The field of sport-for-development (S4D) has received significant attention in the last 10 years, legitimizing it as a recognized and critical new genre of scholarship and praxis. The focus of S4D is to engage disadvantaged people and communities in physical activity projects with an overarching aim of achieving various social, cultural, physical, economic, or health outcomes.

Where at the beginning of the 21st century it was difficult to find projects that use sport or physical activity as a specific vehicle for positive change, the number of S4D initiatives that aim to make a difference has grown substantially. One explanation for this escalation is the strong political support for a movement that combines sports associations, aid agencies, development bodies, sponsoring organisations, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)under a single umbrella.

An example of this is my project, which showcases how for the last decade, the collaboration of NGO Village Bicycle Project (my research partner organization) with Stylish Karim Kamara has helped progress local individuals, schools, community groups and education/health organisations by supplying bicycles and bike riding services.

A lovely moment of (research) providence

Often in research, what is being worked on is removed and abstracted from the goings-on in ‘the real-world’.

But not for me this week! This week I had a lovely moment of research providence!

I am currently reading a book on S4D (see image above) which details programs like Football for Peace in the Middle East, Ganar and Deportes para la Vida in the Caribbean, Soldados Nunca Mais which rehabilitates and retrains Brasilian child soldiers using sport, Pacifica Wokabot Jalens (team-based step challenges) programs and other EduSport initiatives.

And it just so happened that my reading of this book coincided with the UN International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP 2021) which was on the 6th of April.

So this made what I am working on even more real and meaningful.

What is the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace?

Here are some great IDSDP resources and information.

Here’s some background from the UN explaining IDSDP 2021.

In recognition of the positive contribution that sport can have on the realization of sustainable development and on the advancement of human rights, 6 April was proclaimed the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) by the UN General Assembly in its resolution 67/296 in 2013.

Theme: International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) 2021

The International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2021 there is an opportunity to recognize the role that sport plays in communities, in individuals’ lives, in building resilience and in the recovery from the pandemic through online and social media activity in the lead up to and on the Day.

The Department of Global Communications, in collaboration with DESA, WHO and the co-chairs of the Group of Friends of Sport for Sustainable Development in New York – Qatar and Monaco – have developed social media and online messaging around the theme of recovery from the pandemic, the importance of equity in that recovery, and what is necessary to build back better for a more resilient and equitable world.

Sport can cross boundaries, defy stereotypes, improve our physical and emotional health, and inspire hope across nations, but we will only be able to get back to this, if we recover better and help end the pandemic by helping ensure everyone is protected from COVID-19 Using the hashtags #SportDay and #OnlyTogether, interested UN entities and external organizations will be able to tailor the theme to closely fit their own specific mandates and activities to demonstrate how sport and physical activity can help build back better and stronger as society begins to reopen and recover, once the pandemic ends.

Sporting analogies, such as “achieving success through teamwork,” and “using a level playing field” can also be incorporated to deliver the important equity and resilience messaging, and sports personalities and organizations can help promote. Teamwork is essential to building back better.

So, let’s help end the pandemic by ensuring everyone is protected from COVID-19. Let’s level the playing field and recover better. #OnlyTogether will we play again.

Objectives

The 2021 International Day of Sport for Development and Peace aims to:

– Reaffirm the place of sport in the recovery from the pandemic and beyond
– Foster equity, solidarity, community and team spirit in response to the pandemic
– Encourage healthy habits through physical activity and building emotional wellbeing
– and inspire hope through sporting analogies.

These are the hashtags for the International Day of Sport this year: #SportDay #OnlyTogether

03/01/202109/03/2021

HNY: This blog continues to celebrate diversity and inclusion

Happy New Year all!

I hope you have been enjoying your time on and off the bike – and gearing up for another productive year!

Regular readers know that BCC is not your average mainstream cycling blog ….. it is anything but!

For my first post of 2021, I am revisiting this blog’s manifesto and ongoing guiding commitment to support a range of bike experiences that celebrating inclusion and diversity.

This blog promotes positive and inclusive bike experiences

This blog’s key focus is to share stories where bicycles create positive community and environmental change.

The content you find here covers my bicycle Ph.D. (readings, research, ideas) as well as awesome bike-focused people, places, groups, and events from Australia and around the world.

This blog’s motto is: Have fun, rides bikes, do good.

Here at Bicycles Create Change (BCC), I talk a lot about gender, sustainability, dogs/animals, community, inclusion, social justice, access for all, recycling, supporting outliers, education, families, kids, modified bikes for diff-abilities, people over 60, people under 15, art bikes, bicycle community groups, returned war veterans, gardening, school/education, mobility, creativity and art, making your own trails and riding around your local community. Type keywords into the blog search to see full posts.

Bike Works at Kunnanurra WA. Bicycles Create Change.com 7th Jan 2020 — BCC Post (7th Jan 2020) Bike Works at Kunnanurra (WA). Image: Bikes 4 Life.

This blog brings you stories from around the world

Over the years we have travelled far and wide: Afghanistan, South Korea, India, Tibet, Ireland, Norway, Iceland, South Africa, China, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Uganda, Isreal, Belize, Japan, Gambia, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, The Cook Islands, Laos, Brazil, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, Iraq, Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Argentina, the Himalayas, Finland, Sudan, Ghana, Vietnam, Uruguay, Darfur, Nepal, Ethiopia, Peru, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cambodia, Tanzania, and internally displaced people (IDP – ‘refugee’) camps around the world….to name a few… type keywords into the blog search to see full posts for these places.

…yes there is an incredibly rich bicycling world outside Europe and North America!

2019 Fancy Women Bike Ride. Bicycles Create Change.com 1st Nov 2019. — BCC Post (21st Nov 2016) :Turkey’s Fancy women on bikes. Image: Bikeitalia.

And from around Australia

In Australia, we have visited all the major cities – Brisbane (where I am now based) Melbourne (my home town), Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Hobart, Canberra, Alice Springs) and their awesome bicycling adventures.

We have also traveled more widely in Australia to showcase rural locations and places outside big urban cities like: Kunnanurra (WA), Ballarat (VIC), Adelaide Hills (SA), Lismore (QLD), Dubbo (NSW), Bendigo (VIC), Woodfordia (QLD), North & South Spit Area (Sunshine Coast, QLD), Chewton, (regional VIC), Woodend (VIC), Goldfields district (regional VIC), and bike rides spanning the full East Coast of Australia. (*Epic!*).

Giving it all up to cycle the world with your dog. Bicycles Create Change.com 5th August 2018. — BCC Post (5th Aug, 2018): Giving it all up top cycle the world with your dog.

This blog is not ‘mainstream’

I have written previously on this blog about the prevailing misogynist ‘unbearable whiteness of cycling‘.

As an alternative to the oversaturation of hegemonic, mainstream, consumer-based, profit-driven, western-English speaking-heterosexual-male-white-wealthy-middle aged-fit-able bodied-road riding-elitist-centric news and blog sites you can get any(every)where, this blog’s purview has always delighted a range of different biking experiences that shows a greater diversity of bicycling experiences.

So on this blog, I talk about ‘biking’ – not ‘cycling’.

At BCC, I’ve covered a huge range of awesome community bike-themed events you won’t find collated elsewhere, like: The Kurilpa Derby, The Yarn Ride, The Brisbane Big Push, Bike Hack, Climate Action Rallies, Bike Art Exhibitions, ANZAC Day Commemorations, 6-Day Brisbane (track sprint competition), Halloween Rides, National Sustainability Festivals, Brisbane Bike Film Festival, 3Plus3 MTB, NAIDOC Week bike events, Ride the Night events, Chicks Who Ride Bikes (CWRB) events, Melburn Roubaix, Bike Rave Melburn: Pink Flamingo Edition, Witches Rides, Alley Cat Races, Animals on Bikes Art Trails, Bayview Blast, the annual, all-female Chicks in the Sticks MTB event, Bike Palooza, Full Moon Rides, National Bike Week, Ride to Work events, Holi Festival, Commonwealth Games MTB, Sustainable Living Festivals, Woodford Folk Festival, Style over Speed rides, Slow Rolls, Zombie Bike Rides … and heaps more (*phew*!). Type any of these keywords into the blog search to see full posts for these events.

BCC Post (17th Sept 2016): Bicycles Murals – by Mart Aires. Image: Artist Mart Aries (Buenos Aires, Argentina).

This blog goes to the best conferences

And I’ve had lots of abstracts accepted, attended, followed up on, and presented at LOTS of conferences to share our story and learn more from others, like: Australian Walking and Cycling Conference (AWCC) (Adelaide, SA), Reconciling research paradoxes: Justice in a post-truth world (Brisbane, QLD), Bike Hack (Brisbane, QLD), English Australia National Conferences (Sydney, NSW) Bike Week (Brisbane, QLD), Australia Association for Research in Education (AARE) (Brisbane, QLD), Bicycle Network: Bike Futures (Melbourne, VIC), 8^th International Cycling Saftey Conference (Brisbane, QLD), Bike Palooza (Bendigo, VIC), Re-Imaging Education for Democracy Summit (Brisbane, QLD), Freshlines Symposia (Brisbane, QLD), University English Centers Australia (UECA) Assessment Symposium (Brisbane, QLD), Pedagogies in the Wild Conference (Cape Town, South Africa), 10th Annual New Materialisms Conference of Reconfiguring Higher Education (Cape Town, South Africa), Asia Pacific Cyle Congress (Christchurch, NZ), International Cycling Conference (Germany), International Exhibition and Conference in Higher Education (IECHE) (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)…. and more (*double phew*!!). Type keywords into the blog search to see full posts for these conferences.

BCC Post (1st July 2016): Bike Tourism in Peru. Image: Sacred Rides

Promoting diverse perspectives and bikey lifeworlds

For over 6 years, I’ve worked hard to share a range of stories from around the world that centre on everyday people, community groups and places (not Aust, UK or USA) that are often underrepresented, unknown or unrecognized for the positive impact they are making with bicycles.

And this year, I will continue to share stories that are community-based, diverse, relatable and inspirational.

To kick off 2021 – I have dug into the archives to bring you a showcase of some of the remarkably diverse people and projects I have shared in the past.

Here’s are a few diversity posts you should check out if you missed them:

14-year old Ramya Jose (India) who made her family a bicycle washing machine.
Forbidden women riding bikes in Iran.
Jean d’Arc the first ever black female UCI RWC competitor.
Celebrating Isata Sama Mondeh – Sierra Leone’s #1 female rider and first-ever female bike and bike shop owner-manager.
Becoming Ruby: MTB, Inclusion, Identity & Heros.
2018 NAIDOC Week – Where are the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander cyclists? (AUS)
The wonderful celebration of older riders: ‘Granny! Wait for me!”
Rotorua (NZ)’s awesome ‘Dad’s and Lad’s’ bike skills program.
Happy 2018 Sydney Mardi Gras on bicycles!
All-women’s Mala Bruja Alleycat Race.
Assoc/Prof Chelsea Bond (Leading Indigenous academic, Brisbane, AUS).
Turkey’s Fancy Women on Bikes.
Mountainbiking in Kampala, Uganda.
Wadjda – an Arabic girl’s dream to ride a bike.
Riding for animal rescue.
The right to feel the wind in your hair – Cycling Without Age.
The impact of a Girl’s Bicycle Education Scheme in Bihar (India).
Melburn Roobaix (Melb, AUS).
Village Bicycle Project (Sierra Leone & Ghana).
Reflexively crafting bikespiration herstory – Moments of rupture.
‘Thought control’ bicycle for spinal injury rehab.
Saber Houssein – an Afghani teacher who bicycles books to rural villages.
Two 90-year-old WWII veterans cycle 167kms to commemorate D-Day
Fairy Houses and Mountain Bikes.
South African Bicycle Portraits: Stephanie Baker
Paulus Maringka’s Greencycle Community Bike Research (Indonesia/NZ).
Chicks in the Sticks: annual all-female MTB race (Brisbane, AUS).
Bicycles help the Pascua Yaqui community fight diabetes (US).
Happy ‘Fearful’ Mother’s Day Cycling Mums.
Reflexively crafting bikespiration herstory – Moments of rupture.
Increasing returned veterans’ social connection with bicycles.
Adam’s Happy Bikes Sales and Service.
Why women in developing countries should have bicycles.

As I was preparing this post and going back over these older stories (and so many more from the blog), it filled me with immense satisfaction. I love that this blog continues to provide a platform for incredible bike stories to be shared and celebrated that would otherwise remain relatively unknown – and I’m looking forward to continuing this mission in 2021!

‘Thought control’ bicycle for spinal injury rehab. Bicycles Create Change.com 16th July, 2019. — BCC Post (16th July 2019): ‘Thought control’ bicycle for spinal injury rehab. Image: Griffith University.

05/12/202024/08/2021

My Newest Publication just released! ‘The Return’

Bicycles Create Change.com. 5th December 2020. — Image: Vox.Athena (IG)

Woohoo!

Great news!

I am extremely happy to announce my latest article has just been released!

This is not your traditional academic article: no big words, no theory no-one understands and no in-text references.

This piece is perceptive, personal and poignant.

It is only 2.5 pages and is an embodied exploration of what is seen, said, felt, performed and experienced during international travel.

It centres on my return trip home (to Brisbane, AUS) after doing bike PhD Fieldwork in Sierra Leone.

In it, I share some moments of ‘Encountering the Return’ trip that any traveller would instantly recognise.

Anyone who has ever been overseas or in an airport will relate to this article.

I wanted to capture how time, space, place, bodies, objects, movement and feelings are all co-implicated in re(co)creating the fleeting moments that make up our lives.

Grab a copy of it below.

Ginsberg (2020) Encountering the Return Download

I got home 1 week before COVID-19 lockdown, so that was also a major dynamic to contend with.

I’ve included the first page below.

Enjoy reading it over the holidays!

Reference:

Ginsberg, N. (2020). Encountering the return. Journal of Narrative Politics, 7(1), 42-44. Retrieved from https://jnp.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default.

01/04/202023/12/2021

New Materialism SIG: My bicycles-for-education PhD fieldwork presentation

Note: the first 2020 NM SIG gathering was held before COVID-19 social distancing and workplace lockdown came into effect – hence us meeting in person.

As many of you know, I am the co-convenor of a New Materialism Special Interest Group (SIG) at Griffith’s Institute for Educational Research (GIER). Each month a group of HDR candidates, Early Career Researchers and Academics meet to explore, discuss, experiment and share complex and emerging post-qualitative ideas, methods and approaches.

New Materialism is the framing I am using for my African girls’ bicycles-for-education PhD Project. To kick off the first SIG for 2020, I presented my African fieldwork.

I’ve had a few people contact me asking how the trip went. Below is a snapshot of my bicycle PhD project, the context and what I did during my PhD fieldwork in Lunsar, Sierra Leone.

Here’s some highlights of my fieldwork presentation (more details in slides below).

Opening: An Acknowledgement of Country, Diversity and Inclusion and that Matter Matters and thanks to the local Lunsar chiefs and the amazing people who have been instrumental in helping make this project happen.
Researcher positionality: Who am I and how did I come to this project
Research context background : 5 intersections of Girls unfreedoms
Girls Ed Lit Review: Current directions in NGO Literature on the topic
Establish Space: Key Project that opens up my research space – completed in 2010
Confirm & Extend: Follow up – a specific project on girls bicycle projects in Lunsar – completed 2016
Established gap leads into my research questions (no slide for this = top secret!)
My Study Design: Aims, Methodology and theoretical framing (NM)
Fieldwork details: Tech Matters and other research developments/considerations
Country context: Background to Sierra Leone (very general history & context)
Site Location: Background and context about Lunsar (my fieldwork location)
Research partnership case study: Intro to Village Bicycle Project (organization) Stylish (host/research participant/all-round incredible man!)
Fieldwork ‘Data’: list of all the research data/activities achieved (so busy!) and other events, opportunities and visits – so busy!
Present some ‘Data‘: I showed some fieldwork bike ride footage for discussion (no slide – top secret)
The return: Now I have returned, I outlined my next steps and questioned how/what to do to start ‘data analysis’
Q&A: Open discussion and suggestions on entry points for data analysis using NM approaches.

Aside from being able to share my fieldwork experiences with others, it was also great to get stuck into some rigorous academic discussions and come away with a number of productive and tangible ideas to apply for data analysis.

Most satisfying of all though, was seeing how interested people are in Sierra Leone and having the opportunity to promote and celebrate the beautiful people, places and experiences I had there.

11/03/202013/01/2022

Celebrating Isata Sama Mondeh – IWD 2020

Celebrating Isata Sama Mondeh

A central theme for International Women’s Day (IWD) 2020 is celebrating women athletes and increasing their visibility.

For this year’s International Women’s Day, I’d like to introduce you to Isata Sama Mondeh.

I met Isata while in Sierra Leone in February doing PhD Fieldwork.

I was keen to meet Isata because not only is she Sierra Leone’s long-standing National Elite Women’s Champion – but she is also the first-ever female bike mechanic in Sierra Leone AND the first female bike mechanic to run their own bike shop. OMG!

Isata learned bike mechanics and shop management through Village Bicycle Project.

I travelled out to Makeni (Bombali District) where Isata is based to meet her and see the shop. We hit it off and ended up seeing each other a few times after that, including going for a (long!) ride together – which was a real highlight for me.

I was humbled and inspired to hear how she got into bikes and how she is trying to get more females riding bikes.

Isata Sisters Bike Shop

Her business is complementary to her riding. Asa Sierra Leone’s first female mechanic, she is breaking stereotypes and working hard to build up a business that might support her and her family. Just as she was initially helped by Village Bicycle Project to get started, Isata is also paying it forward. She has trained up another female mechanic (who Isata mentored) who also now has her own shop – the second female-owned bike shop, as well.

Isata is 26 and has had her Makeni bike shop business ‘Istata’s Sister Shop’ for three years now. She was able to start the workshop due to a microcredit scheme and in collaboration with Village Bicycle Project.

How did she get into bikes?

When Istata was in school, she would rent other kids bikes to learn how to ride. Despite having no bike of her own, she was talent scouted at a local high school sports carnival when a coach saw her in a bike race. He was impressed by her natural ability and speed – and wanted to see more.

And so she started racing. This was a lonely and unforgiving time, but it did give her valuable experience. In her first race, she was the only female. In her second race, there were three females and she came 2nd. In her third race, she was (again) the only female riding against 18 males – and she finished 10th overall. People started to notice her results and consistency.

She made it onto the National team and has never looked back. She has been the National Elite Female champion since 2006.

Overcoming negative cultural beliefs.

When she rides, Istata is challenging long-held local cultural beliefs that riding a bike is taboo for females. Many still believe that if a female rides a bike, they won’t be able to have a baby. This belief has prevented many girls from taking up riding.

When she first started riding, it was a concern that Isata herself had to face.

Isata loves riding, but was remaindered continuously by others that riding was not for women.

It was a problematic mind-trap to shake.

She found it hard to fully believe it, especially as she already had a ten-year-old son. So she had an inkling that those old views were not correct – but they were so prevalent and so constant!

It was only when a friend showed Isata profiles of some of the UK’s top elite female track and race cyclists who have children. This was all the convincing Isata needed.

Bravely, Isata is a very positive role model to encourage other females to get into cycling. She convincingly uses her experience as evidence when she talks to girls, families and community members and she addresses traditional cultural view head-on. She uses the fact that she has a 10-year-old son and a bike business to challenge limiting local beliefs about girls and bikes.

But for females, riding bikes in Sierra Leone is hard.

The most challenging thing for the female riders is that they don’t have bikes. Isata is the only female rider in Makeni who has a bike. She and the other female riders don’t have sponsors so cannot afford to buy the bikes they need. To this end, Isata continues to work tirelessly.

Isata – we celebrate you!

Isata loves her bike and loves her bike mechanic business. Despite great adversity, she is doing all she can to promote women’s cycling in Sierra Leone.

For these (and many other reasons), I’d like to acknowledge and celebrate Isata this IWB 2020. She is the epitome of all that IWD stands for and a fantastic role model for us all.

We wish you the best of luck – both on and off the bike!

If you would like to contact or support Isata, her bike shop or her riding – please email Nina via the contacts page to be put in touch.

06/03/202015/04/2020

Social Science Research in COVID-19

Hello, bike nuts! Thanks for dropping in. As you have noticed, it has been incredibly hectic since my return from Sierra Leone. Not only has it been a profound shift returning from my PhD fieldwork and all the emotions, work, people and activity that entailed, but COVID-19 has taken complete hold of the world to which I returned. Just like everyone else, for the last month, all my time and energy has been consumed with transferring to remote work. For me, that means all managing and adapting all my teaching, learning and classes to virtual spaces – as well as supporting my international and domestic students (116 in all) do the same. The COVID-shift, as I have come to call this phase, has taken precedence over updating this blog. Rest assured, I will be updating as I get the chance, but it might not be as regular as we are used to – but I will continue uploading content – after all, it seems more critical now more than ever to celebrate life and keep positive (on and off the bike!). NG.

Social Science Research in COVID-19

It’s a crazy time to be a (social) scientist – and an even crazier time for fieldwork.

In addition to my own direct experience of recently travelling and researching overseas, I have returned to a world that has significantly changed since I left.

COVID-19 was a threat as I left for my fieldwork in Africa – and it was a reality when I returned.

Everyone has had to make sacrifices, changes and adjustments for family, work and research.

These adjustments take weeks if not months and there is no avoiding it – but as Victor Frankl reminds us, we do have control over how we chose to face challenges.

I have been heartened to see some academic proactively moving to meet the challenge of researching during COVID-19.

For those researchers who need a little lift and motivation – this post is for you.

Here are 3 ways social scientists are productively responding to COVID-19.

1. Alisha Ahmed

I found the advice given by academic Aisha Ahmed (who has experience living and working during war, poverty and disasters) on ‘Why you should ignore all that Corona-inspired productivity pressure’ was not only timely but it also provided some solace.

2. Deborah Lupton

Deborah Lupton This Sociological Life has posted some resources for social researchers working in a COVID society saying ‘I’ve put together a few open-access resources concerning what an initial agenda for COVID-related social research could be and research methods for conducting fieldwork in the COVID world’. Her post includes the links below:

Conducting Fieldwork in a Pandemic (Google Doc crowd-sourced resource)
Social Research for a COVID and post-COVID World: An Initial Agenda (blog post)
Conducting Qualitative Fieldwork During COVID-19 (PowerPoint slides) (Webinar presentation with voice and slides)

3. The COVID-19 Social Science Research Tracker

This is an open-source global spreadsheet that collates COVID-19 research projects. This impressive repository includes large and small projects from some of the leading universities in the world and showcases the range and significance of COVID-19 impact. All hail GitHub! The organisers state: ‘Social scientists have an important role during a pandemic. We can do this much better through cooperation. This international list tracks new research about COVID 19, including published findings, pre-prints, projects underway, and projects at least at proposal stage.’ What a gift.

COVID-19 and my PhD research

Once my transition to full remote working and teaching has ‘settled down’ (whatever the hell that means?!), I’ll be making space to sit down and reflect.

I’ll be taking stock and considering how and where I’ll incorporate this unique encounter into my academic work, my dissertation and beyond.

Best of luck to us all.

30/11/201904/12/2019

Bikes help break the poverty cycle

For this blog post, we are looking at how bicycles are being integrated into two programs run by Australian-based INGO Global Hand Charity.

Global Hands Charity

Global Hand Charity (GHC) is an Australian international NGO founded in 2008 that works to improve educational opportunities for children in remote communities in Laos, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and now Cambodia.

During their initial programs, GHC quickly realised that before children could learn, basic needs like access to drinking water and toilets or WASH (Water and Sanitation and Hygiene) needed to be addressed. So before working on education, they built wells, toilets and showers near the schools before introducing learning interventions.

GHC have a strong supporter base and links to a number of Australian universities (like Curtin University). 100% of all money raised by GHC go directly to people in need. They are completely volunteer-run and do not take any money for administrations costs. Their running costs are supported by government grants.

Two of Global Hands Charity projects involve bicycles. First, GHC’s Education program Bicycles Program: Bicycles break poverty program has provided bicycles to remote communities to help local Laotian children access schooling. Second, Trade school: building a sustainable future is a bicycle repair and trade skill workshop space to upskill children with diff-abilities (deaf and mute).

Bikes help break the poverty cycle. Bicycles Create Change.com 30th Nov 2019. — Schoolgirls in Laos

Bicycles Program: Bicycles break poverty program

In remote villages where schools are scarce, many kids walk on average 4 hours a day to attend school. Some travel up to 8 hours return. With a bike, these same children can ride the 10-15 km to get to their local Secondary School in less time, more safely and still have the energy to learn.

Currently in Laos, only 50% of students attend secondary school because they are usually further away. Most primary schools are located in villages, so the travel is less and attendance is usually about 85%. The transition from primary to secondary school is a critical aspect of continuing education – and bikes are a way to address this issue.

To test the program, initially 50 bikes were donated by GHC as well as another 50 bikes going to Sister Catherine’s Trade School (Laos). Since then, the program has expanded and more bikes have been distributed.

Trade school: building a sustainable future

GHC has built a bike and carpentry shed at the Disabled Children’s School for Deaf and Mute in Luang Prabang (Laos). The Shed is a place for students to learn how to repair and service bicycles donated through GHC’s Bike Program. This program is specifically for the deaf-mute boys at the school.

So far over 100 bikes have been purchased to enable children in remote villages to attend secondary school up to 20 km away. Working alongside the Bicycle Program, students who extend skills in bike repairs and carpentry skills as a way to build skills for future employment opportunities.

Another Trade School project taught girls commercial cooking, hospitality, hair and beauty skills to reduce the risk of girls crossing the border into Thailand and ending up in sex work on living on the street.

GHC Core Programs

Global Hand Charity has 4 core programs: Education, Schools & Buildings, Healthcare and Community. Here is an overview of some of their initiatives:

Education

Textbooks: Books for education (Laos)
Professional Learning: Teacher Education (Vietnam)
Bicycles Program: Bicycles break poverty Program (Laos)

Schools & Buildings

Dormitories: A Safe place for girls to realise dreams (Vietnam)
Community Centres: Community hubs for families (Laos)
Trade School: Building a sustainable future (Laos)

Healthcare

Deaf & Mute Orphanage: Hearing for the first time (Laos)
Mobile Eye Care Camps: Seeing a way out of poverty (Laos, Sri Lanka)
Medical Visits & Funding: Making lives easier (Laos)

Community

Clean Water: Tippy Tap saves lives (Universal)
Girls Hygiene Project: Laos girl power (Laos)
Hygiene Bags: Hoikor Bags (Laos)

Helping others

Global Hands Charity is committed to making positive change for rural kids in Laos and Sri Lanka which are among some of the poorest countries in the world.

In these rural villages, there are no doctors or hospitals and children stop going to school because it is too far and too difficult to walk.

GHC is providing community nurses and running free medical clinics in rural community centers, building schools, learning centers, dormitories and providing bicycles so kids can access education. They also provide specialist educational and medical programs, such as vision and hearing initiatives, that are not available in many parts of South East Asia.

Organisations such as Global Hands Charity can help improve education, employment and health opportunities for locals living in remote areas– and it is great to see bicycles playing an important part in these projects.

22/11/201925/11/2019

Global Childhood Juxtapositions: World Children’s Day 2019

Regular readers of this blog know that my PhD research explores how bicycles feature in rural African girls’ access to education. This means mobility, education, in/equity, gender justice and children’s rights are central to much of the work I do. They are also reoccurring themes for this blog. I regularly post articles that showcase how bicycles create more positive social, environmental and educational change for all – and in many cases for children specifically.

A few previous BCC posts that feature bikes and kids are:

Bicycle Washing Machine (15 Nov 2015)
Do education levels effect cycling rates? (18 Nov 2015)
Bihar – Girls’ Bicycles Education Scheme (26 Feb 2016)
Japan: Bicycles that expand children’s potential in Cambodia (20 Apr 2016)
Indigenous Youth Olympic Track Cyclists (4 June 2017)
Let your kids Ride2School – then go to jail! (17 Mar 2017)
Jakarta slums alive with fold-out bikes (8 Sept 2018)
The Orange Bike project in the Philippines (27 Jan 2019)
1,300 South Sudanese girls to get bicycles to access education (20 Aug 2019)

November 20^th is the World Children’s Day.

This year, I wanted to acknowledge this date in a different way.

Instead of sharing a project where children benefit from bikes, I wanted to highlight the juxtapositions of cultural experiences of children around the world.

Expand your cultural competency

This week in my Griffith Uni 1205MED Health Challenges for the 21^st Century class, we discussed cultural competency and cultural safety. I challenged my students to set themselves a cultural competency experiment/activity for homework – something that they needed to do that would push them outside their own cultural box.

It is too easy for us to think that our experience of life is how it is everywhere.

In Western countries, we are very privileged and sheltered. The experiences of being a child in Australia, the US, Europe, Scandinavia or the UK is vastly different than those in less advantaged countries.

To more broadly consider how culture and environment impact children’s lives differently, look no further than artist Uğur Gallenkuş (@ugrgallen) – his work does this uncompromisingly.

Global Childhood Juxtapositions: The work of Uğur Gallenkuş.

To honour 2019 World Children’s Day, I’m sharing some of Turkish artist Uğur Gallenkuş work. Uğur is a digital artist who collages images to highlight binaries, juxtapositions and contrasts in human experience. His work comments on conflicts, political issues and social disparities. Some pieces can be quite confronting, others heartfelt, but all have a clear message and are thought-providing.

Uğur’s work forces us to rethink our privilege and remind us that we need to think, feel and act beyond our own immediate cultural experience.

And that many children worldwide need a voice, recognition and help.

Volunteers help a refugee man and baby as refugees hoping to cross into Europe, arrive on the shore of Greece‘s Lesbos Island after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on November, 2015. Image: @ugurgallen. Photo: Özge Elif Kızıl @oekizil @anadoluajansi

See more of Uğur’s work on Instagram -it is well worth checking out.

All images are created by Uğur Gallenkuş.

15/08/201918/08/2019

Former refugee finds the man who gave her a bike more than 20 years ago

I don’t often directly repost stories on this blog. As a luddite, I am also very wary of social media. But amongst the doom and gloom of news reports, husband found this gem of humanity. It is the story of a former refugee, Mevan Babakar, who was given a bike by a refugee camp aid worker. 20 years on, she still remembers the kindness of the man and the joy of riding the bike. Mevan recently used Twitterverse to track the man down. Although this account is more about the power of Twitter and doesn’t have many details about the bike or what happened after she located him, I still love the idea that the simple gift of a biycle to a child can have such a profound and long-last impact.

Previously, this blog has posted about refugees issues and bicycles. With so much political and social insecurity and misinformation about refugees, it is lovely to hear a more personal and caring story of genuine connection, community and sharing.

It is also a reminder to make the effort to say thank you and/or recognise those who help and support us. Some valuable lessons for us all. This story is written by Maani Truu and was published in Australia by SBS online today. Enjoy! NG.

Thousands of people have come together from across the globe to unite a former refugee and the aid worker who bought her a bike.

A blurry film photo, a location and a touching Twitter post launched an international hunt to find a man who gifted a young refugee child a bike “out of the kindness of his own heart” more than twenty years ago.

Now, after more than 3,000 retweets and thousands of messages, London woman Mevan Babakar is set to meet the man who made her “five-year-old heart explode with joy” in person.

On Monday, the 29-year-old former refugee posted her quest to Twitter hoping someone would recognise the man who worked at a refugee camp in the Netherlands when she was a child living there in the 90s.

“Hi internet, this is a long-shot BUT I was a refugee for 5 yrs in the 90s and this man, who worked at a refugee camp near Zwolle in the Netherlands, out of the kindness of his own heart bought me a bike,” she wrote.

“My five-year-old heart exploded with joy. I just want to know his name. Help?”

In under 24 hours, the post garnered thousands of responses from around the world and on Tuesday evening, Ms Babakar shared the exciting news.

“Guys, I knew the internet was great but this is something else,” she said.

“We found him!”

Ms Babakar, who was born in Baghdad, Iraq, to Kurdish parents, also said she was not the only refugee to be helped by the unidentified man, known only as “Ab”.

“I’ve also had other refugees reach out to me and tell me that he and his wife helped them too! Their kindness has touched so many lives,” she wrote.

“One woman said ‘they weren’t friends to me, they were family’.”

According to BBC News, Ms Babakar and her parents fled Iraq during the first Gulf war, passing through refugee camps in Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Russia before spending a year at the one near Zwolle between 1994 and 1995.

Ms Babakar is now a tech expert, who currently lives in the UK and she has travelled back to Zwolle to research her family’s past.

Text and all images: SBS News.

27/02/201905/03/2019

A bicycle prayer-wheel projector in the Himalaya

Alexander Csoma de Koros was a Hungarian traveller/explorer who traveled to Tibet in 1820 where he learnt the language and culture.

Csoma ended up being a cross-cultural pioneer for both countries and forged a long-standing language, cultural and learning exchange between the two nations which still endures today.

Student Storybook of Csoma’s LifeDownload

To commemorate Csoma’s spirit of cultural support and exchange, Hungarian conceptual tech lab Kitchen Budapest has created a low-tech kinetic image projector called Csoma’s Wheel.

Csoma’s Wheel is a bicycle-based installation that uses traditional Tibetan prayer wheel design as the base structure to create an electronic art/image projector.

The LED flashing prayer-wheel is made from two bicycle wheels, bike and other parts, LEDs and a concrete block. When the wheel is rotated by hand, the spinning generates enough electricity to power a strip of LEDs that shine light through a perforated screen or drum. From these LEDs, a basic animated image is projected onto the concrete block.

The designers have loftily claimed Csoma’s Wheel to be “the first ‘new media treasure’ of the Himalayas”.

This project has been completed and is installed in the Csoma’s Room (also called Csoma’s Santuary), which is charity school supported by Csoma’s Room Foundation in the Zanglar in the Himalaya. This foundation supports locals by supplying funds, skills and volunteers to help revive a local Palace, repair Bhuddist temples, and build schools and homes.

The homes and schools are all completely solar-powered.

This NGO uses sustainable local materials (adobe bricks), revives and utilises traditional construction and handicraft skills, supports local economic and labour/skill (income-generating) opportunities, builds more schools and homes and provides solar power.

Csoma’s Room Education Report 2008Download

In keeping with Alexander’s spirit, there is a strong emphasis on promoting local heritage and using local Zanglar skills, practices and materials to reduce reliance on high tech, resource-dependant, imported materials.

The bicycle prayer-wheel projector was installed to complement the recent completion of major construction to Csoma’s Sanctuary, which is visited by many international visitors each year.

This is certainly one of the more unique and innovative ways to use bicycles!

All images courtesy of Csoma’s Room