Share The Ride Visits India

Ever thought of how you felt when you got your first bicycle and rode down the lane?
How it changed your life drastically. How getting from point A to point B became so much more fun and faster?
How many friends you made while pedalling around the block and how life just got so much better behind the bars?
No hassles, No fancy gear, No worries, Just freedom and the wind in the face.
Some children are not fortunate enough to own bicycles and experience the joy and freedom of the two wheeled wonders.
Share the Ride is helping change that. For a better tomorrow.

Share The Ride aims at getting underprivileged and unfortunate kids get a new lease on life by getting them bicycles from money donated by generous benefactors across the riding world. The money they donate helps us put a smile on faces of children whose lives are turned for the better with the two wheeled freedom machine.

Share the Ride came to India, and helped forty-two kids get on bicycles not only to have fun on but to use for commute to school and other places where they otherwise had to walk. We got in touch with Paul Walsh, of the Jungle Crows foundation in order to help the kids they work with get a better life.

The Jungle Crows mission is to be a leading sports and social development organisation supporting children and young people as they grow and develop. Work to be a positive influence on all around us by supporting and encouraging everyone to achieve to their full potential. They work with unfortunate kids from the projects and help them lead a better life and mould them into better people by encouraging them to take up sports.

The kids were so excited when they heard that they were getting bicycles, their faces had such big smiles on them. The bicycles will not only help them experience the freedom of riding a bike but also improve their lives by helping them commute. Jungle crows focuses mostly on rugby but now we are even planning on helping two of our kids get into mountain biking. We shall tap into their potentials and choose accordingly. We have Prateek to help train them as riders and I myself am pretty excited to see so many happy faces. - Paul Walsh, founder, Jungle Crows Foundation.

We ordered 40 b-twin my bikes, as they were the perfect rugged all purpose bicycles which would help the kids commute as well as work as an all round fun bicycle. The sizes were appropriately ordered and there were two entry level Rockrider 5.1 mountain bikes for the ones who are proven capable of being tuned as riders. These bicycles will bring a turning point in the lives of these kids, and there will be no looking back.

And the bikes arrive.

Bringing the bikes to life.

Each of these bikes will be soon a part of a great story of someone's life.

The bikes and helmets ready for the giveaway.

Happy Faces, Happy bikes.

This reminded me of how I feel when I ride a new bike for the first time.

The children had something different during physical education classes this Saturday.

I had fun explaining a little bit about bikes and safe riding to the kids who were about to make their new bikes a very integral part of their lives.

They were even excited to follow me around the block several times. I couldn't stop looking back at their smiling faces.

Share the ride has changed the way these kids will lead their lives. Bicycles are the way to world peace.

Jungle Crows Foundation www.junglecrows.com
All Photos: Shivam Roy and Aryadeep Ghosh

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Author Info:

prateek24
Member since Jun 10, 2011
30 articles

11 Comments

bishopsmike (Apr 10, 2015 at 4:09)

Should be plenty of straight-steerer, short top-tubed, steep head-angled, threaded-bb, quick-releasing, non-boost hubbed 26" bikes for everyone!

10 2

SithBike (Apr 7, 2015 at 12:09)

Terrible girls to boys ratio in that group.

pat266 FL (Apr 9, 2015 at 23:06)

Everyone in the world should be able to experience the joy of riding a bike, it's one of life's simple pleasures

djm35 (Apr 11, 2015 at 7:09)

The bikes may be basic, but that just makes them more simple to fix, in a country where spare parts for top end bikes are very hard to find. Its great work and should be commended.

car0401 (Apr 13, 2015 at 7:35)

Its great to see these kids getting bikes. I went on a similar trip in 2014 to New Delhi to hand out bikes to 7-12 year old "untouchables" that were formerly enslaved and working in factories. The kids I met were so grateful for the bikes because it gave them the chance to get an education by biking to schools that were 15 miles from their homes. Most of these kids would either be sold into slavery or abused and forced to beg for food if they didnt get an education, so a bike means a lot to them. If you get a chance, please donate $60 to a bike charity. It might be a set of new tires to us, but it is an future for them.

RedBurn (Apr 10, 2015 at 15:29)

RedBurn (Apr 10, 2015 at 2:42)

what's 32 kids into 1.4 billion people, where a LOT are starving to death ....

zion-i (Apr 10, 2015 at 6:21)

30 something bikes might be small in contrast to 1.4 Billion people, but 30 is infinitely more then 0. Gotta start somewhere!

TheStig04 (Apr 10, 2015 at 15:22)

So RedBurn, what you would recommend Share The Ride do?

RedBurn (Apr 10, 2015 at 15:30)

share the food

TheStig04 (Apr 10, 2015 at 16:04)

Yes... share the ride is going to donate food... a solution to a few people's hunger for one day. No, I think giving 32 kids access to low maintenance transportation is a much more meaningful contribution.