This is Kwame.
Our Learn to Ride sessions rely on local riders who can help us work with the dozens of girls and women. Kwame was our first helper like this. He had been known in his hometown, Agosa, for being a rambunctious and sometimes troublesome rowdy boy, but instead of punishing him and sending him away, staff suggested that he just needed something constructive to do with all his pent-up energy. Village Bicycle Project invited him to become an assistant instructor for Learn to Ride, pushing girls who needed help and setting up the cones. By week two, Kwame had noticed that the littler girls needed more help; he took it upon himself to separate them, and invite his friends to help him teach the small girls how to ride BMX bikes. Every evening he organized the other boys to put the bikes away and check their tire pressure and brakes. Now, at every site VBP serves, staff does the same. In the month Learn to Ride was in their town, Kwame taught more than 30 girls to ride!