Bicyclists Magnifique

Ol Lentille  would not work without all our wonderful friends  around the world  and this week we are reminded of this more than ever ...we owe  an enormous debt of thanks to our friend Jon Diver from The Character Group PLC and his staunch allies Jon Elliot , Ron Brawer and Tom Hodgkins.

 

They are seen here setting off yesterday from Paris with their bicycles to arrive in London tomorrow afternoon  a tough bike ride of  approximately 225 miles in 3 days, which is an average of 75 miles per day. They will arrive in London tomorrow.. just in time to set up for the London Spring Toy Show! The team consists of Tom Hodgkins, Ron Brawer, Jon Elliott and Jon Diver. They will be travelling light, with only what they can carry on their backs and the bikes .. ..so its a tough challenge.....

One website describes people doing this challenge as being ‘crazy if you’re not in peak physical fitness’, luckily they are ……… !

So, why are they doing this? Because on his visit to Ol Lentille Jon was struck by the difficulties the community faced in educating their children and he made an aim to raise a significant amount of money  .... Jon doesn’t think small....

He aims to... firstly  .. upgrade and rebuild Nkiloriti School so that children as young as 6 won’t have to walk 6km to the larger 8 roomed school at Ngabolo every day (it is not uncommon for these children to encounter elephants, leopards, hyenas and  wild dogs during this journey)... and ..to provide funding for 2 years salaries for two early years trained nursery teachers at Nkiloriti School including training....

That’s just for starters...

Secondly...

 ...to build a boarding facility with beds, kitchen/dining facilities, toilets, washing facilities and solar power at Ngabolo school so the older Nkiloriti children get a chance to board weekly ....

and thirdly.....They want to provide furnished classrooms to the children at Parkuruk School and Narasha Nursery who currently learn under a tree.

and ......don’t stop yet.......  S’ingaun Nursery is in a remote village that is like going back 500 years in time. It’s a day’s walk to the nearest water and back, and the mothers do this trek twice a week with their donkeys. Jon  would like to provide them with some sort of water storage system to help them

They have the North Downs, the South Downs, and the Parisian traffic to deal with but thankfully no elephants!

Thank you  sincerely Jon for your ambition and energy ....... and  of course your powers of persuasion in getting your friends on their bikes!