The Great Bike Ride

The Santos Great Bike Ride for Charity is owned by the Rotary Club of Perth and aims to raise funds for the Heart Foundation, Horizon House and Hope for the Children. Click on the headlines below to find out more about the good work that these worthy charities undertake.

HORIZON HOUSE

With a focus on providing long-term accommodation, care and intensive support to vulnerable young people at risk of homelessness, Horizon House provides care in a family environment. We believe that all young people should have the opportunity to live in a home environment that fosters respect and responsibility.

Operated as one of St John of God Health Care’s Social Outreach and Advocacy services, Horizon House enables young people to develop trusting relationships. Our homes provide a positive environment in which young people can achieve and aspire to a better future.

Horizon House residents come from a wide variety of backgrounds and may have experienced significant – and often complex – difficulties in their life. Some of the challenges our young people have faced include general health issues, family conflict, physical or mental abuse, a lack of education, unemployment, homelessness and limited social skills.

Horizon House ensures that young people in our care are engaged in education, training, employment or voluntary work and carers live in the home with young people to ensure that support is on hand whenever it is needed.

There are five Horizon Houses in Western Australia – Broome, Bunbury, Geraldton, Wanneroo and Wilson – which will all benefit from the Santos Great Bike Ride for Charity. Fund raised from this event will be used to give young people in our WA homes a special Chirstmas trip because many of our residents would not otherwise have the opportunity to have a happy, family Christmas.

One current Horizon House resident, Kelsey, was just 14 when she became homeless, having suffered physical abuse and unstable family circumstances. Kelsey said: “I never had the communication I needed, I never felt loved and I was very depressed for a very long time. I was pretty much scared for my life. I was always running away from home and ended up living in hotels and wherever I could.”

Her fortunes started to change when she moved into Horizon House: “It really is an amazing place and having been homeless and knowing how hard and stressful that can be is absolutely shocking,” Kelsey said. “To come here after that is just a huge sigh of relief because here I have been able to put everything behind me. It’s been a huge step and it has helped me recover so much. I’m completely different, a much happier person.”

Horizon House is very grateful for all funds raised by the Santos Great Bike Ride for Charity, which will enable us to support many more young people like Kelsey. For more information on Horizon House please go to www.sjog.org.au/horizonhouse or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

HEART FOUNDATION

The Heart Foundation is Australia's leading not-for-profit heart health organisation, dedicated to reducing the dreadful effects of the number of people living with, or dying from stroke, heart disease and blood vessel disease.

Since being established in Australia in 1959, the Heart Foundation has funded world-class cardiovascular research, supported health professionals in their practice, developed health promotion activities, informed and educated the public, and assisted people with cardiovascular disease.  Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Australia accounting 34% of all deaths, killing one Australia every 10 minutes.

Heart disease can affect even the super fit, as cyclist Rob Nicoli knows better than most.

Now back on his bike and at work as a mechanic, Rob is keen to warn others about the possibility of a heart attack and urges them to learn the warning signs.

Rob (51), of Scarborough, had a heart attack late last year, but still joins weekly training rides with Perth’s elite cyclists for part of the way.

A cyclist for more than 20 years, Rob thought he had avoided heart disease despite a family history, with his father and grandfather having had attacks.

“Because I had a healthy lifestyle I didn’t think I would have a heart attack – I thought I had avoided the sword,” Rob said.

Rob’s cardiologist later said he had been very lucky, as most men his age didn’t get to hospital on time.

“Men like me think they are too young and too fit to be having a heart attack, but I would say to them just call an ambulance as soon as you can,” Rob said. 

The Heart Foundation’s Will you recognise your heart attack?  Campaign aims to raise community awareness and knowledge of the warning signs of heart attack and the importance of responding quickly by calling Triple Zero (000) for an ambulance.

The campaign is one of the ways the Heart Foundation works to save lives.
More than 1,000 West Australians die from heart attack each year, with more than half of those deaths occurring before the person reaches hospital.

Know all the warning signs of heart attack and what to do by visiting the Heart Attack Facts website www.heartattackfacts.org.au or calling the Heart Foundation’s heart health information service on 1300 36 27 87.

HOPE FOR CHILDREN AUSTRALIA

Hope for Children is an Australian, Ethiopian and US based charity that was founded in 2002 to care for HIV/AIDS affected orphans and families. When we started we thought by giving these children a safe and loving home we would be giving them a future. However, as we became aware of the shortcomings of locals schools, we realized that unless they receive a solid education we are only giving them a reprieve from poverty until they turn 18 and are on their own again.

While the Ethiopian government is working hard to give all children access to education, the size of the problem is overwhelming. Nearly three quarters of school aged kids have no access to formal education. Those that do, have to try and learn in classes of up to 80 children, with teachers who believe in corporal punishment. Often there is no teacher at all and the kids are taught via plasma television. It is all too easy to go through the school system and still emerge illiterate.

The HFC kids are only too aware of this and have been pleading with us to find a solution. After exploring many options, we have decided to find and run a school of our own; The School of St. Yared Ethiopia. 

Hope for Children School of St. Yared Opens

Hope for Children Australia open first school in Ethiopia with the support of funds raised by the Santos Great Bike Ride.  The School of St Yared opened in 2009 with the aim of offering a top class education to talented, impoverished children. Our goal is to empower these students to break free from poverty and to become future leaders of their community.

Right now you are doing something that over one third of Ethiopian men and nearly two thirds of Ethiopian women aged 15-24 would desperately love to be able to do; read. Without literacy or numeracy skills, these people are sentenced to a life of poverty with no way out. It doesn’t have to be this way. Through education, we can help Ethiopians help themselves out of poverty.

At the School of St. Yared,  our goal is to empower the poorest and the brightest with a quality education so they can grow into self-sufficient adults who will become the future leaders of their community.

But we can’t do this without your help. The School of St. Yared relies completely on donations, fundraising and partnerships.  We have selected 62 talented and industrious students to make up our inaugural class, and we need your help to feed, clothe and educate them. You can choose to sponsor a student or make a one off donation. Either way, it is a gift that will keep on giving. Because when you help a child out of poverty, you give them the power to help their entire family.

How we select or Students:

For an Ethiopian child receiving a place at St. Yared is like winning the lottery. To ensure the opportunity of a lifetime isn’t squandered, we select only the brightest, most determined and resilient children from the most impoverished backgrounds. Potential students are asked to sit a non-biased intelligence test at age 5. We have already selected our first 62 students out of 250 applicants and they have entered our kindergarten program and will stay at the School of St. Yared all the way until year 12.

What does Sponsorship cover?

At the School of St. Yared, we will provide all students with a first class education based on Western and Ethiopian best practice. Class sizes will be small and all teachers will be tertiary qualified. All students will learn English, as in Ethiopia this skill guarantees them a job upon graduation.

As our students are from families that are unlikely to be able to afford to feed them properly, every child will receive two nutritionally balanced meals a day to increase their ability to learn in the classroom. Their sponsorship will also cover all school supplies, uniforms, transport to and from school and minor medical attention.

Donations/Partnerships:

The School of St. Yared is educating Ethiopia’s most impoverished children, potentially giving them the power to one day be the leaders of their country. You are therefore investing in their children and providing the ladders they need to build brighter futures for their families and future generations. 

Kalkidane Mesfine 

Kalkidane Mesfine, one of the School of St Yared’s most brilliant and conscientious students, was born under a plastic tent where her family was forced to live when their small rural shop burnt down in 1997. Her parents have since died of HIV and she now lives with her elderly twin relatives in a modest 2 room brick home provided on a temporary basis by Rotary Club International in Gurara, one of the poorest areas of Addis Ababa. Before generous donations allowed the purchase of the school bus, Kalkidane would walk 45 minutes to and from school. After school, Kalkidane is responsible for housework and goes to the markets alone to buy ingredients for the evening meal. While her daily routine does not allow for much free time, when she completes her chores she loves to play hide and seek and play-school with the children in her neighbourhood.

Kalkidane is a very promising student, who loves attending the School of St. Yared. She earned straight A’s in her most recent examinations, and her aunt and uncle strongly encourage her to study hard, as they recognize Kalkidane’s education as a means for the assisting the family to escape the poverty cycle in the future. Despite Kalkidane’s incredibly difficult living circumstances, she is a very happy little girl with an infectious smile and is a positive and active contributor in class. Kalkidane’s favourite subject is English, and she hopes to one day become a doctor. In the year since she started at St. Yared’s, Kalkidane has grasped basic English and can hold a simple conversation. Her confidence has also increased and she has made a significant impact teaching literacy to other children in her neighborhood.  With so much potential it is vital that the School of St Yared, with invaluable support from sponsors, can continue to assist Kalkidane and children like her, to continue their education, enhance their self-esteem , realize their dreams and make a real impact on their families and wider communities.

Asnake Abere

Asknake’s story, much like those of all our students is one of great hardship, resilience and enormous potential. His parents died after
contracting HIV/AIDS when he was only a baby, leaving him with his elderly grandmother, who often travels to southern Ethiopia to care for 5 other grandchildren. They currently live in their neighbour’s house, in the mountainous outskirts of Addis Ababa where hyenas stalk the playgrounds in search of food and electricity supply is intermittent at it's very best. Asnake often studies by candle light but, despite his circumstances, is always cheerful and bright. Their only income is from a meager government pension and they often rely on the generosity of neighbours to eat.  It is Asnake’s role to fetch the water from a nearby well and maintain the home after school.

When Asknake was first enrolled into Kindergarten at St. Yared’s in 2009, he was illiterate. Now, 18 months later, he has successfully graduated to Grade 1 and can read and write in both English and Amharic. His success is attributed to his exceptional will and dedication to his studies and the extraordinary support of his caring and conscientious teacher, Ms Selam who has given him the additional assistance he has needed. The School of St Yared has given Asnake the opportunity to gain an education he would otherwise not be afforded, as well as the chance to play and interact with other children his age in a safe and friendly environment. Asnake also receives shoes, a uniform, learning materials and three meals a day. Like 61 other children, Asnake requires assistance from sponsors in order to continue his education and achieve his enormous potential.