PEPY, an adventure cycle tour and humanitarian aid organization, announces its second annual Bike-to-School ceremony will take place July 30th at The PEPY Ride School in Chanleas Dai, Siem Reap Province. The Bike-to-School program awards bicycles to sixth grade students in Cambodia who have shown a commitment to education through high attendance rates. This allows motivated students to reach secondary schools, which are often 5-10 kilometers from their homes. This year’s ceremony will award 72 students with bicycles. Over 400 community members are expected to attend. “Over the course of many school visits on our Cambodian cycle tours, we learned that after elementary school, students were often unable to continue on to secondary school due to the long distances they had to travel to attend classes. The Bike-to-School Program is PEPY’s way of helping bright kids stay in school,” said PEPY Ride co-founder, Daniela Papi. In addition, the Bike-to-School program provides an incentive for families to support children’s attendance in primary school.
The PEPY Ride, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit registered in the US and Cambodia began in December 2005 with a mission to bring volunteer minded travelers from around the world to Cambodia to visit schools and orphanages and spread the PEPY message, "Protect the Earth. Protect Yourself." Now, with the help of its Bike-to-School program, PEPY has been able to extend the reach of its educational contributions. Each $100 donation buys more than a bicycle; it buys a life-changing opportunity for a motivated student. “By encouraging more students to continue their education through high school, the Bike-to-School program is a real opportunity to help communities break the cycle of poverty,” says Daniela.
Over 80 travelers from 14 countries have visited the organization’s first project, The PEPY Ride School, where the Bike-to-School program began last December. PEPY’s tours provide travelers and locals with life-changing experiences. Each adventure trip fee includes a separate, tax deductible, donation fee that supports the ongoing humanitarian projects in Cambodia visited on the tour. Itineraries range from high intensity multi-week cycle trips to week-long volunteer projects focusing on a specific developing area. Each trip is designed to introduce participants to development work in Cambodia and provide an exciting, authentic experience of Cambodian culture and hospitality. Daniela says, “Many people donate in support of development projects they will never visit, but with PEPY, you can go where your money goes. By joining one of our trips, you see first hand the difference you are making.”
For more information, to make a donation, or to sign up for any of the upcoming volunteer trips, please visit www.pepyride.org. To donate funds in support of the Bike-to-School Program, please visitwww.firstgiving.com/pepyride.
The PEPY Ride is a New York State registered Non-for-Profit Corporation founded in 2005 to support educational projects in developing countries and disaster relief areas with a focus on the relationship between the environment and our health. Emphasizing education through action, where participants both learn from and give back to the communities they visit, PEPY Tours organizes volunteer and adventure travel in developing countries and redevelopment areas suffering from natural disasters.
CONTACT:
Maryann Bylander
914-458-4262
[email protected]