Tanzania
For girls in the developing world, a lack of safe transportation can be a barrier to education. At the Ndevelwa Secondary School outside Tabora, Tanzania, for instance, “typically only the boys had the benefit of bikes to help with the journey,” says Elizabeth Demichelis, a member of the Rotary Club of Modesto Sunrise, California. “Thus the concept of pink bikes was born.” The Modesto Sunrise club, with help from the local Rotary Club of Arusha, arranged for the bicycles to be made available to girls; the conspicuous color is a theft deterrent. The girls, their families, and the head of school signed contracts denoting responsibility for the care of the assigned bikes.
Nepal
Long after a vocational training team helped Nepali schoolteachers make the most of their Rotary-funded library and computer lab, the initiative continues to pay dividends. “The resource center is helping to manage online classes in this pandemic time, even in the rural areas of Nepal,” says Rabindra Thapa, a member of the Rotary Club of Kathmandu North, which joined the Rotary Club of Stowe, Vermont, in the global grant-supported project at the Shree Ram Secondary School in Koshidekha. Carolyn Holcombe Damp, a past volunteer at the school, enlisted her partner, Larry Heath of the Stowe club; her sister, Joan Holcombe; and Didi Kearsley — all retired educators — for the team’s trip in late 2017. They stocked the facility with some 1,500 books, 15 laptop computers, and other equipment. The Stowe club and District 7850 each provided $10,000; The Rotary Foundation added $15,000 in funding for the project.
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 Tanzanian schoolgirls with their theft deterrent pink bikes donated by a Californian Rotary Club |  A Kathmandu Rotary Club and a club from Vermont stocked a resource centre of 1,500 books, 15 laptops etc | |