Yeilis sits in the shade of a bamboo plant and brushes sand from her cheek as it blows in from the nearby desert on a searing hot breeze.
The teenager gives a shy smile as she describes her pride at graduating from 11th grade, before setting out plans to attend university in Riohacha, half an hour’s drive away on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
Two years ago, Yeilis says, such aspirations would have been fanciful.
“I had a lot of problems getting here to school. It was a two-hour walk each way, and it is so hot. There were days I just didn’t come, I was so tired. It gave me problems with my exams as I was missing class. That was before the bicycle.”
She gestures towards her Buffalo Bicycle, a robust and sturdy bike that has been designed to endure some of the harshest conditions on the planet. With arid conditions, water scarcity and large swathes of its 1.2 million population living in abject poverty, the Colombian region of La Guajira certainly faces multiple challenges.
Since receiving her bike from the charity World Bicycle Relief in April 2023, Yeilis, 16, has not missed classes at Guachaquero school, a cluster of crudely built brick buildings on the edge of vast, flat desert. “It now takes me about an hour to get to school. It’s much easier; I don’t feel so tired, I don’t get the headaches I once did.
Yeilis, left, and her sister, Yorleidis
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
“I’m very passionate about school. I know I won’t achieve things without putting in the effort. I’m very happy to be graduating 11th grade soon.”
World Bicycle Relief, which is part of The Times and Sunday Times Christmas Appeal, focuses its efforts in Colombia on La Guajira, one of the country’s poorest regions on the northern tip of South America.
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It is home to the Wayuu indigenous people, whose many challenges include long distances between villages and schools, limited access to water, recurring drought, and economic fragility exacerbated by historic government neglect and climate change. Further strain has been placed on limited resources due to unrest in bordering Venezuela, with thousands of refugees settling in La Guajira.
The bicycle is a simple solution that presents a lifeline to those who would otherwise spend hours walking each day in punishing conditions. For children, that means regular attendance at school. For families, it means access to water and the ability to carry goods for sale at market.
From barely surviving to utter joy
The Caribbean Sea is directly behind us as we hurtle along the road from Riohacha, dodging potholes and passing mopeds carrying precariously balanced children. Tradesmen carry goods in a horse and cart; goats graze the limited green vegetation on the edge of the tarmac.
This is a region of extreme heat that parches the landscape, a world away from the lush rainforest and historic cities that have enabled Colombia, once known as the drugs capital of the world, to rehabilitate its image and become a burgeoning tourist destination.
Andrew Wright, the affable country director of World Bicycle Relief, cries out in delight as he spots a local cycling one of the charity’s bicycles: “You’ve just seen your first Buffalo in the wild!”
Wright, a Geordie who fell in love with Colombia 20 years ago and stayed, swerves to avoid a goat and explains the importance of the animals to the locals. “Many of the local families farm goats. Goats are used for a dowry. Wealth is often based on the number of goats you own.”
Much of the population lives in remote locations, in rudimentary mud or clay dwellings propped up with sticks. Outside towns there is little sanitation, and women and children walk hours to reach wells containing water. La Guajira has the highest child mortality rate in Colombia. For some, every day presents a battle for survival.
But between 6.30am and 7am in Guachaquero, when the sun is warm but has not yet become unforgiving, the scene is one of utter joy. Children arrive smiling and waving on Buffalo bikes. Older students carry siblings on the back of their bikes. Others have large jerry cans to collect water. Cockerels provide an early morning chorus as the pupils bounce into class.
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
They gather together inside for a welcome song but they often study outside, under the shade of bamboo, to escape the crippling heat. Government support is so limited that teachers have donated 10 per cent of their monthly salary to build classrooms. Desks and chairs are rusted, lizards run across the dirt floor and wild dogs roam the playground. Children wear shoes made of rubber tyres and they etch brand names such as Gucci and Adidas into the soles.
Marcelli Graco Herra, the academic co-ordinator, explains that more than 80 per cent of the 750 pupils were walking to school, an average of nearly four miles each way, before World Bicycle Relief provided the bikes. Attendance rates have soared.
“It’s transformed the school. Pupils come all of the time. The bikes are a big help for the family also. They use them for water, to collect firewood, to sell goods.”
She laughs as she adds: “There’s no excuse not to come to school now.”
‘I can fetch water and still go to school’
Tradition is at the heart of Wayuu communities, which are very conservative, meaning there is an expectation on young girls to complete daily household chores including fetching water. Wright explains that before World Bicycle Relief’s programme began in La Guajira in 2021, young women were routinely skipping school because of the hours-long task of walking to water sources. The bicycles allow them to do both, and the charity gives 70 per cent of its bikes in La Guajira to females to try and increase school retention.
Alejandra, a 17-year-old pupil at Isidro Ibarra School, outside the indigenous capital of Uribia, has three brothers, aged five, six and eight. Until she received a bike last April, she had to walk a long distance each morning to fetch water for the family before a 30-minute walk to school.
Alejandra Paola Moran
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
“Because I have commitments at home I would often be getting to school late. I have to leave water for my mother, to make sure there is water for the household. In the past I was late as I used a wheelbarrow to walk and get water. Now I do it on the bike and get to school on time.”
Buffalo Bicycles are designed to be durable in extreme weather conditions and World Bicycle Relief has distributed more than 950,000 of them across 28 countries in Africa, southeast Asia and Latin America. They are virtually indestructible, Wright says, made of stainless steel and without gears so they are less likely to need repairs. The rear rack carries loads of up to 100kg, meaning it can be used to carry family members or water.
Since 2021, World Bicycle Relief has distributed more than 13,500 bikes in La Guajira, helping to boost attendance in a region where children often simply do not go to school. We see this first-hand when our car is diverted by a roadblock just before an official toll booth. As the car traverses an off-road trail through the bumpy desert, groups of small children hold up ropes at several checkpoints to stop us and ask for cash.
According to World Bicycle Relief’s statistics, school retention is up 82 per cent among children who own bikes. Many families survive on as little as £1.50 a day, so those who previously used locally contracted school transports, such as pickup trucks, are saving a crucial chunk of their salary by using the bikes instead.
But this is not pure philanthropy; the bikes are not simply given to communities and then forgotten about. “We don’t want bicycle graveyards,” Wright says. The charity has trained mechanics throughout the region, who in turn teach children how to maintain their bicycles. It has also set up spare parts retailers across the region to ensure that the bicycles stay in use.
Alejandra, who brings her brothers to school on the back of her Buffalo, is on a “study to own” contract. If she does not attend school, the bicycle no longer belongs to her. Each bicycle has a unique barcode so that the charity can follow up and check pupil attendance rates and grades at school, to ensure the initiative is working.
‘I have a brighter future’
At Isashimana school near Manaure, a town known for its enormous salt mining operations, more than 600 bikes have been supplied to families who are dispersed in small hamlets many miles away. Rita Uriana, 48, the head teacher and community leader, has also built a bakery there to ensure children receive at least one meal a day.
Rita Uriana says bicycles are reducing isolation in Wayuu communities
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
“The bicycles have made the children much more independent,” she says. Previously, many of her pupils walked to and from school for many hours. Others were reliant on trucks contracted by the local government to pick them up. “In the rainy season the roads become clogged and the transport cannot reach homes. Many live so remotely they cannot be reached at all, so they did not come to school. Now they come.
“Children were skipping school as they had to collect water. Now they can collect it here and cycle home. It’s made a big difference.”
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Back at the school in Guachaquero, Yeilis is proof of that difference. She is not sure exactly what she wants to study next, but she is emphatic her life will involve further education.
“I want to move forward and have opportunities and challenges. I feel I have a brighter future.”
Find out more about the Christmas appeal and donate by calling 0151 286 1594 or by clicking the button below.