Bike4Hope, which is running for the second year is powered by Light Generation and is a bike ride initiative designed to raise funds for Free the Children under the auspices of Adopt a Village. The main goal is to provide clean water and sanitation. Adopt a Village is currently implemented in 8 countries: Ecuador, Nicaragua, Haiti, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Kenya, India and rural China.

The group operates from Pickering, Ontario. We spoke with co-ordinator Solomon Oyeniran.

What was your inspiration for starting Bike4Hope?
I started a bike group because I wanted to get young people to grow up into young adults that know how to contribute to society in a positive way. The program was first called bike and chat and was created as a way to engage with young people in the church in a fun and active way to build their confidence. We would incorporate a chat during our bike rides so that there would be a safe space for youth to connect and communicate while forming a healthy lifestyle that involved exercise. After a short while we realized that we could enhance the group to focus on social causes as well and we changed the name to Bike4Hope.

What do you hope to accomplish?
The goal is inspire young people to be engaged civically and to be active members in society while providing mentorship and a safe space for young people to grow. This is a way for the youth to know that they are valuable and needed by the less fortunate. The young people are able to choose the initiative that they want to raise funds for and this allows them to feel more connected to the cause they are supporting. We want to help raise as many funds as possible for our initiative for the year while grooming youth to be productive members in society.

This year, the bike ride initiative will be held on July 16, 2016.