[biirds chirpiping]

[speakaking native langugua]

>> for about a couple of years, we only focused on adult women anand literacy for them. and i noticed many ofof the girs who came e to the clalass were , very young girls with a mangalsutra, which is a gold and black beaded necklace around their necks, which in india is a symbol of matrimony. and they had babies on their hips andnd i starteded to ask 's

going on, , and why are such yog girls married off already. and there's a famous indian saying--why water a plant that's going to grow in a a neighbor's garden? [speaking native language]

what i f find so particulalr about it is that i it's soso si. it's measurae.e. somethingng tht we take foror granted, and in othher areas of the worlrld is something that changes lives. one bike. it's $134 per bike. and i know that that bike is goingng to go somomewhere. it's s going to make--it's going to chahange the lilife of not oy one pererson, but p probably

of a whole fafamily. >> [speaking native language]

>> in many villages, there were only schools till seventh grade. there were no high schools. so we workrked in ten villages at that point of time, and there were only three high schools. so thenen i asked, you know, i asked the parents, the mothers, w wl, what hahappes to ththe boys? how do you s send the boys s to school?l? and they sasaid, well, , we give ththem bibicycles. a and i sai well,l, what about the girls? and they said, oh, no, it's a waste of money to give a bicycle to a girl if she's going to turn around and get married.

so i thought, my god, if it's only a bicycle that's keeping girls from goining to schooool, let's go aheaead and, you knono, give it to them.

>> the first day, there was one young woman nanamed miriam oduro thaat came up p to me and d sai, david, i w want to be e a part ofththis projectct. and i said,, that's great, you wantnt to lean how to fix bikes. . and she sas, yes. she said, david, i'm seriouous. i want t to learn how to fix bikes.

it's a pretty amazing thing to have this aggressive male come with his bike and d say, h, my bike needs to be e repaired.. my wheel is gogoing like t this. right. and then everyone looks at him, they y say, ok, we'll fx it for you. and then they take the wheheel off and give it to miriam. and the guy's expression is like, what? this woman, this disabled woman is going to true my wheel? and what ends up happening is that she t trues his wheel

for him. yoyou know, and sometis there are men sitting there just watching as miriam is repairing their wheel, something that they can't do themself. and there's this female, physically disabled mechanic fifixing their wheel for this person. i know that her lifife has chand by it. i knknow that shshe now s herself in t the wld as an influenential person. she sesees herself as havingng skills s that other peoplple d't hahave that arare valuablble tor communityty and even n to the w. she sees herself as now representing otherer physicallly disabled peopople who were in hr position before without work, and in a position now to advocate for them and, you know, for recognition of the enormous amamount of u unemployed physicy disabled people in ghana.

she's a woman working in a field thatat is generally dominated by men. and so she's even expandingng the boundaries of women, and other women who are able-bodied look up to her as an example of how women can be in the world.

>> [speaking native language]

>> bye-bye. >> bye-bye.

>> you have recreational road riders who can generally afford bikeses up to 2, , $3,000orore. right. youou have recreatitional mountain bikekers. same deal. and those folks wilill tend

to rereplace bikes every feww years. and you have the die hard enviro bike c commuters. but that group is not just the clasassic image e that we he of the bicyclele commuter.r. you know, the white, well-educated cyclist who's decided to simplify their life and to live environmentally and thus they're going to bike. santa barbara, at least half of that five percenent of people getting around by bike are working class folks who relyly on that bike probably not necessarily outut of choice. bebecause peoeople ride whatever tthey can, you know? and again, that's half of our active bike commuting population. and so, our feeling at bico centro as kind of the group of founders was that that group wasn't being

served. i feel a a lot of symphyhy for people inin shark's position, because out of--out of high school, the possibilities are really bleak. what do you do? continue kind of hanging out with the gang. he probably has some hard j job prospects.

>> this is just the same story over and over. people with enormous potential that are overlooked throughout the world. but we e need our s solutions that arare intermediate. we have all these like overpowering solutions.

we want to have elecectricity. well, let's dig up that mountain anand just lilikeake electricit. and we'e'll just run railroad cs and trucks. and like all we do is overpower things oror neglect t things. >> [speaking native language] > the majority of trips that people need to takeke in their lives, if you're in guatemala or ghana or in boston, are bikeable. >> if we have a problem with transportation, it's when we wake up in the morning, you look at the sky and we say, if it's cloudy, do we go by y cr or we tatake the bike? the tranansportation story

or transportation problem in africa is totally different. they don't have the choice. they either have to walk-- the kids have to walk 2 to 3 hours to school and from school, or caregivers have to walk all day long. in the best circumstances, they can see maybe two or three patients. it's a completely different view on what a b bike can dodo. we e don't t see the ususe of ae other than.n...we have the chch. >> having a bicycle and being able to access education can have susuch a huge impact on, you knonow, aspirational levels, on educatition levels, on quality of life.. >> that bicycle e is increasasig their m mobility. it's increasig their ability to go places. it's broadening their scope

of their lifife, of what resours they can access. >> and b bikes have e been partf my life naturlllly for alwlways. and d i've neverer thoughtht abt hahaving a bikike. what a bike n do.....to me it just makeses too much sense. and i couldldn't afford myself to say i'm not papart of thisis. >> it is a comprehensive develelopment tooool. development happens for an entire country starts with one person. and if every single peperson in ththat county begins to become empowered and begins to have access to resources, the entire country's going to develop.

>> [s[speakining native l langu]

> for dedes, wld leaeade have ruggled reduce carbo emissins. the relt is a st and colicated stem in whicpollutiohas beme a ommodity andhe carn credithave beco part ofhe finanal mark