88Bikes Peru, in partnership with Andean Outreach

Our 88bikes project for 2008-2009 was another major success for 88bikes, this year bringing bikes to children in Huancayo, Peru, about 100 miles east of Lima. On January 2nd and 3rd, 2009, over 120 bikes were given away to kids at several orphanges in Hunacayo.

The first photos of the Peru project are viewable in the Gallery. Here's a dispatch from the team in Peru on January 3rd..

We are thrilled to report that 88bikes Peru is complete! We've distributed more than 120 bikes to happy kids at 5 orphanages. Our friends at Andean Outreach, an NGO here in Huancayo did a superb job negotiating with the bike shop, arranging transport and interfacing with the orphanages. Our friend Lauren and her friend John, who work with another NGO in Lima, made the trek over the mountain and taught the kids basic bike repair and helped them get used to riding their new bikes...

In partnership with Andean Outreach, we're supporting the needs of these heroic children whose lives have been impacted by HIV, the Shining Path guerilla movement, and the regional poverty that have destabilized peru over the past two decades. The kids range in age from as young as 4 or 5 years old to kids in their late teens.

These bikes will be used to get to and from school, to travel to and from nearby towns, and just as importantly, to give the kids a sense of freedom and enjoyment that will inspire them for the rest of their lives. Now that we've raised enough money for the bikes in Peru, further donations can be given in any amount to our endowment fund, which is used to support 88bikes' project in Peru and maintain our past projects in Cambodia and Uganda.

Thanks! Dan, Jared , and Nick.

ABOUT THE SCHOOLS

The Andean Mountains in Peru are home to some of the most underdeveloped communities in the Western Hemisphere. Huancayo, Peru was at the center of the Shining Path guerilla movement from the early 1970's until the early 1990s, and to this day continues to be destabilized by drug trafficking, poverty, and the remnants of the guerilla movement, which persist even to 2008. As a result, many children in the region have been orphaned or abandoned.

PARTNERS

We're partnering with Andean Outreach a great organization focused on capacity building and outreach to the people of this region.

THE GOAL:

120 (and more!) Bikes for kids at five orphanages in Huancayo, Peru.

THE KIDS:

Heroic kids ranging in age from 4-17.