Improving Quality of Life: Four Benefits

• Access to Education and Social Services. The Mobility Cycle enables children to get to school easily and consistently. The promise of equal opportunity, literacy, poverty reduction and basic human rights begins with every child having the opportunity to receive an education.

• Psychological Benefit. A disabled child or youth who is able to move 5 meters or 5 kilometers as quickly and as independently as any other child is far more likely to regain faith in himself and his abilities. This independence brings a renewed sense of confidence and dignity. It reaffirms the essential qualities of childhood by allowing children to believe in their hopes and dreams.

• Social Benefit. The Mobility Cycle offers the opportunity for much greater inclusion in the day to day social life of the village or community. When a child can be fully independent in her choice of movement, the natural, resilient qualities associated with childhood are fully engaged: playing with other children, forging bonds and friendships, and discovering the promise life holds through the relationships she forms with her peers, teachers, mentors and role models.

• Economic Benefit. In the struggle to make the difficult climb out of poverty, it is common for parents to withhold affection and exclude disabled children from opportunities offered to other children. One of the principle reasons for this is the belief that a disabled child will never be able to contribute to the family income.

MWBF gives high priority to education and strongly discourages child labor practices. However, it also recognizes that the Mobility Cycle has a beneficial effect on the capacity of the child to contribute to domestic family tasks and also supports engagement in secondary activities, such as traditional beekeeping. Experts in the field support the premise that small income-producing activities that are complimentary to the pursuit of an education actually increase the retention rate of school-going children. Even a small contribution to the family income helps purchase food for the next meal and eliminates the need for a child to shine shoes or engage in far more demeaning or exploitive activities.