By Niki Gregoriou

Students at The Wheatley School, a north shore private school, are working with the Village Bike Project to help the poverty stricken African country, Ghana, through The Wheatley School Afri-Bike Coalition, a bike drive that will run through the weekend.

The coalition started sending bikes to Ghana in 2000, managing to send 200 bikes that year. In 2004 they doubled it and sent 450 bikes. Students are hoping to collect even more bikes in this year’s bike drive. Each bike costs $10-12 to ship and all cash donations go to the shipping fees.

“The kids raised all the money themselves, with no money from the school,” said Steven Finkelstein a teacher and advisor. “They are dedicated and amazing kids. This rewarding experience really makes a difference.”

Wheatley students are working with David Peckham, from Village Bike Project, who helps to clear the bikes through customs and bring them to Ghana. He has also set up workshops in Ghana to teach the locals how to use the bikes and repair them.

Finkelstein said he met a woman on a trip to Ghana who proved to be his inspiration. She would travel more than seven miles every day with a baby on her back, barefoot and 30 pounds of coconuts strapped on top of her head in a journey across the border, to a neighboring country, to sell her coconuts.

She had no choice but to walk, so that she could still make her profit of about $1 a day, he said. A bike transformed her life and helped her with this daily task.

Ghana, in West Africa, is home to 21 million people. Thirty percent of that population lives in poverty and most do not have access to necessities such as clean water, transportation, and electricity. The bicycles help Ghanaians get to school or work and rise above poverty.

Donations can be brought to the Wheatley School, 11 Bacon Rd., Old Westbury. Students will be collecting bikes, bike parts, tools, tires, locks, bike safety equipment, cash donations, medical equipment and school supplies.

These donations will be accepted Nov. 7 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Nov. 10 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For further information contact Steven Finkelstein at 516-458-7044 or at finkelsteins@ewsdor.line.org, or Chloe Scwarz at 516-665-4231, or visit ghanabikes.org.