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Bicycles may not be important for urban schoolchildren who live with the convenienceof public transportation, but for students in rural areas, to own a bicycle can mean they will not miss classes, which they often do because of the distance from home.

If you want to help these rural students, you can do so, and there is no need to pay a single satang; just use your energy and ride a special bicycle. Moo Riders Unilever Thai Trading has come up with a project that encourages urban students and others to cycle for exercise and at the same time help rural students to own bicycles for school.

Their brainchild is called Moo Riders and has a Bt40-million budget.

"According to our survey, some rural students, especially in the North, miss school on some days because they do not have transport. With bicycles they will be able to get to school more easily," said Chanya Rodrakquan, marketing development director of Unilever Thai Trading.

Students and those who participate in the project will accumulate "mileage", and the more they clock up, the more bicycles will be donated to schools and children nationwide.

"For every 1,000 miles logged, one bicycle will be available for donation. We expect to donate 1,000 this year and plan to run the project for three years," Chanya said.

The company will station bicycles specially fitted with trip meters at 45 schools in Bangkok and nearby provinces, the Children's Discovery Museum and the offices of MindShare Thailand, Weber Shandwick (Thailand) and Unilever Thai Trading.

Participants can use the bicycles there, and mileage will be recorded each time the bicycle is ridden.

To complement the project, members of the public can also send Wall's Moo ice-cream wrappers to the TV programme Sue Pua Mae: for every 3,000 wrappers, one bicycle will be donated.

Sue Pua Mae participants can also contribute by playing a game on the show.

Rural students nationwide who want a bicycle must write an essay and submit it to Unilever Thai Trading. It must be about bicycles and how they related to a school subject.

"Students are now studying eight subjects, and they can pick any one and relate it to a bicycle," Chanya said.

One hundred winners will be selected in the essay contest, every one receiving a personal bicycle and entitling theirschool to nine more.

 

Wannapa Phetdee

The Nation