Bikes for teachers at an orphanage in Liberia

Rainbow Town provides a home for over 100 orphans who lost their parents during the 15 year civil war.  The orphanage was started by Mother Feeta, who found herself taking care of these children during the war and eventually found a place for them to stay near Gbarnga in Liberia.  Check out where Gbarnga is on the map - which allows you to zoom out to see where it is in relation to other countries in West Africa and the rest of the world.  You can also watch a video to learn more about the orphanage and how it started during the civil war (still to be installed).  

Since 2003 Rainbow Town has been helped by various overseas organisations to build dormitories for the boys and girls, a dining room, a school, some fish ponds and a farm.  People in Stroud have helped to fund the dormitory and the dining room and the furniture in the classrooms.

The school is called the Britt Academy, built in memory of Benjamin Britt - a US soldier who died in Iraq, with funds raised by his parents.  Much of the furniture was financed by people from Stroud.

There are 9 teachers at this school, who live in Gbarnga town some 8 kilometres away and walk to and from school each day along the hot dusty road - taking between 3-4 hours a day.  Here is a picture of some of the  carers on the road that they walk each day.

And below are the nine teachers that walk the same road.

Wouldn't it be great if they had bikes and could cycle home at the end of the day in less than 30 minutes?  The bikes that we will be buying are shown in the picture below and cost £120 each.

We believe that those of you who are taking part in CHANGING GEAR could raise that money so that those 9 teachers could each have a bike.  So we are asking everyone who registers to make a small contribution and then to think about doing something to raise a little more from friends and family so that we can reach the target of £1,080.