Christmas gift idea: Badge-A-Bike for Africa + Jon Snow video

Here's a timely gift-giving thought for your loved ones: how about £60 for a personalised badge that gets attached to a bike for a school child in Africa?

Organised by Jole Rider - that's pronounced 'Jolly Rider' - the charity behind Bikes4Africa and Books4Africa, the new Badge-A-Bike initiative is a way of raising extra cash to fund the maintenance and transport of further donated bikes to The Gambia in Africa.

As their Director David Swettenham puts it, "For so many children in Africa, a bicycle is the single most important thing to help them reach an education. There are schools and there are teachers but too few meaning thousands of children face long daily treks to school. For many that walk is simply too far!"

Badge-A-Bike not only gets another child to school, "it also connects you directly with their success," says Swettenham. It can be a gift for a loved one or a friend, in their name for a birthday, anniversary or Christmas gift or as a lasting memorial to someone special.

Each Badge-A-Bike costs £60 and, according to Jole Rider, includes:

•      A bike being delivered to a child needing an education        
•      A personal message printed on a badge that attaches to bike               
•      An invitation to Jole Rider’s Container Loading Day                
•      A photo of the bike being loaded                       
•      A photo of the bike being handed over to the school
•      A letter of acknowledgement from Jole Rider in Africa

Channel 4 presenter, journalist and surely Britain's most famous cycling commuter Jon Snow who himself had to cycle 15 miles each way to school when he taught in Uganda is a supporter of Jole Rider and appears the end of the video below saying, "Bikes are absolutely critical to any secondary school child in Africa; there's no other mechanism for getting there…We need your bikes, we need your money and above all we need your spirit and your support." 

Details: jolerider.org