Rotary Club Clonmel thank Tipperary people for their generosity

Clonmel Rotary Club has collected another 70 used bicycles to be sent to Africa to be used by students getting to and from school.

The ongoing project has already seen a number of shipments over the past eight years of used, but road-worthy, bikes sent to the African state of Gambia to enable local children have easier access to school.

WORTHY SCHEME

Rotary member and project co-ordinator Michael O’Malley has thanked the people of Clonmel for continuing to supply bikes for the worthy scheme.

“The 70 bikes have now gone to Shelton Abbey open prison in Co. Wicklow where they will be refitted by the inmates before being sent to Gambia,” said Mr O’Malley.

As the bikes are collected by Rotary throughout the year, they are stored in a container at Tipperary County Council’s recycling centre in Cashel before going to Shelton Abbey.

Mr O’Malley has thanked the council, and centre manager Pat Walsh, for the use of their facility in Cashel for the bikes project.

The centre is available all year round for the collection of bikes.

SUCCESSFUL PROJECT

The Bikes for Africa scheme has proven to be one of the club’s most successful projects over the past eight years with the bikes being a huge boon to Gambian schoolchildren who otherwise would have had difficulty travelling long distances to school.

NATIONWIDE

The repaired bikes are used by students to cycle long distances from their homes to school and this resulted in a big increase in the learning capabilities of the students in Gambia.

The project has now gone nationwide with many other counties involved with Rotary Ireland the lead organiser.

Also involved are local authorities, the Department of the Environment, the Prison Service and the Irish Defence Forces, as well as the local Rotary Clubs in each county.