With techie's initiative, poor kids can now cycle to school

Dinesh (name changed) had to walk over 5 km to school as his parents could not afford a bicycle.

Today, Dinesh is among the many students from villages who cycle to school thanks to the effort of a city-based software engineer.

Three years ago, the sight of two girls playing with a broken cycle inspired Sampath Ramanujam, a city-based software engineer and founder of Anvaya Foundation, to start 'Freedom Pedals', an initiative of donating unused bicycles to poor students in government schools in villages.

Under the initiative, Ramanujam and his dedicated team have already donated over 300 bicycles to various government schools in villages of Karnataka.

"When I saw those two girls playing happily with a broken bicycle, I thought about unused bicycles which can be used by children who travel many kilometres to schools as they cannot afford a cycle. This way, 'Freedom Pedals' was born," said Ramanujam. "I found that about 40 to 50 cycles were lying unused in various blocks of my apartment as the children grew older or did not have time to cycle," he said.

Ramanujam, along with his team, started a drive for collecting these unused cycles and got them repaired for donating to government schools.

The team gets calls from donors all over the city. This year, they have already got over 200 calls. After receiving calls, Ramanujam arranges for a vehicle to transport the cycles.

A batch of 50 cycles is donated to every government school. The team recently donated cycles to K Dommasandra Government School and will donate another batch of cycles to Seegehalli Government School on Saturday.

These cycles have helped hundreds of poor students to ride to school. “It has changed the lives of my students. They are so happy. They take care of their cycles and are more excited to come to school,” said Venkataramaiya, principal of K Dommasandra Government School.