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Education is essential for breaking the cycle of poverty and creating opportunities for a better future. However, many children in the rural communities of Svay Leu District, Siem Reap Province of Cambodia, walk as many as five kilometers each way to school every day, creating barriers to regular attendance and academic success.
Our project addresses this problem by providing 50 bikes for secondary school students in these rural communities to provide reliable and efficient transportation to and from their local schools. We will provide a grant of $5,000 to the Cambodian Community Dream Organization (CCDO*) to purchase the bikes from a supplier in Phnom Penh. And although Cambodia is too far to visit easily, as part of the project, we will involve White Plains Rotarians and our Interact Club students through a video exchange program with the Cambodian students we are supporting.
*CCDO is a New York-based 501c3 non-profit that focuses on the needs of Cambodian people in impoverished rural areas. It has a US Board as well as a Cambodian board and Cambodian management team based in Siem Reap. Its focus areas are educational services for primary and secondary students, along with clean water, sanitation, and hygiene initiatives. Our club was introduced to CCDO by our current club President and his wife, who visited Siem Reap over 10 years ago and witnessed first hand the many struggles of rural Cambodians to have basic human needs met.
In recent years, Cambodia has improved access to education, but transportation remains a major obstacle for many rural students. According to UNICEF (2021), Cambodia achieved an 84% primary school completion rate, yet children from poor households continue to struggle with regular attendance due to long distances to school and limited transportation.
Working closely with local authorities in Svay Leu District, CCDO has identified transportation as a key factor contributing to absenteeism and the risk of school dropout. Providing bicycles offers a practical and sustainable solution to help vulnerable students attend school regularly and safely.
CCDO will implement the project in collaboration with education authorities, schools, parents, and community leaders to identify eligible students, based on household poverty, distance from school, and risk of dropping out. After the bikes are distributed, CCDO's local team will provide students and parents with orientation on road safety, responsible bicycle use, and basic bike maintenance to ensure long-term use.
As part of the project, Rotary Club of White Plains and CCDO will collaborate on a student video exchange. White Plains Rotarians will work with Interact Club members from Archbishop Stepinac HS in White Plains, and CCDO local team members will do the same with Cambodian high school students, to create videos in which the students can get to know about each other--their schools, their communities, what they do for fun, and other ideas that the students come up with. And of course, we will want to see videos of the Cambodian students with their new bikes. Our Club Members will also get a first-hand look at the project and the students they are supporting by seeing the Cambodian students' videos about their schools, bikes, and communities.
The project budget of $5,000 includes $1,000 for expenses related to student assessment and bike distribution, and $4,000 for fifty bikes at $80/bike.
The timeline for the project is: Student assessment process begins October 2026; bikes purchased and distributed November/December 2026; video exchanges January-March 2027.
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