Charities we support
We enjoy living and working in SE Asia and are grateful to be able to support some community charities and projects that assist those in need. Currently we are associated with 3 specific local charities and their projects. Bike Tour Asia makes regular visits to these charity projects in the course of our tours to help raise awareness of their generous work in the regions. We have also developed an annual CHARITY RIDE event which sees part of each guests’ entry fee going directly to the charity visited, while delivering supplies and catching up with the progress of specific projects.
Ban Nah Soi Community Learning Centre - Thailand
(BNSCLC)
Provides secondary education, practical vocational skills, and community development skills to secondary school-aged Burmese refugees, ethnic minorities and the rural poor living in the Mae Hong Son Province area of Thailand. The purpose of this project is to provide for the basic needs of the students in the most need. Without a provision of food and medicine, many of the poorest students would not be able to attend the learning centre and would be at increased risk for falling victim to exploitative labour. The learning centre provides an avenue of greater opportunities and better chances in life for these disadvantaged youths.
Pencils of Promise - Laos
Clean Water Program for Schools
In Laos, 80 percent of households must boil their water due to the overwhelming presence of harmful chemicals and waste.
Pencils of Promise (PoP) believes that providing access to clean water is the most effective way to ensure students, schools and communities have sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene knowledge and practices. By providing water filters in Laos, PoP is often establishing the only access points for potable drinking water for students and teachers.
Many of our tour guests that visit this project become quite attached to the experience and the overwhelming need for assistance that they continue to stay involved personally and become sponsors after returning home.
North Homien Village School - Myanmar
BIKE TOUR ASIA Sponsorship
Probably one of the best motorcycle routes in the World, the road from Mae Tang to Mae Hong Son, the road of the 1’864 curves. Between Pai and Mae Hong Son we are making a detour up in the mountains to Ban Rak Thai, a Yunnan Chinese settlement, beautifully located next to a lake, tea plantations and the Myanmar border. On the Myanmar side there is a small village with a school. Kids are coming down from the mountain villages to the school to learn, some of them walking for hours to get there. School facilities are VERY basic. In addition, with its high location (1800 meters above sea level) the winters are cold. Bike Tour Asia has visited the school and village since 2017 bringing school supplies and cloths/shoes for the kids. We have also donated money supporting an improvement of the school building. Through the years we have earned good relationship with the village elder and the teacher. Through this we are usually allowed to cross the border with our motorcycles (when others are not) offering the kids an opportunity to play football using our bikes as goal posts. It’s impossible not to be humbled and touched after a visit to this school.
*UPDATE - BNSCLC Water Aggregation Project Completed (October 2021) !
As part of BNSCLCs’ goal to establish organic farming and becoming self sufficient for vegetables, Bike Tour Asia stepped in to partner the fund raising and sponsorship for the water supply needed from the nearby river. It required the purchase and installation of quality equipment such as submersible pump, solar panels to power the pump, over 150m of piping, 4 x 2000litre storage tanks and sprinkler systems to service the adjacent agricultural land. We are extremely happy and proud to announce that in September the funds required were achieved and during October the installation has been completed with the system now up and running for the teachers and students to push forward with their sustainability ambitions. We look forward to checking out the progress further at our visit in Feb. 2022 (and maybe tasting some of the local produce !).
Well done and a huge “Thank You” to all involved!
