A simple donation by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) in Kenya made a difference in the lives of 200 girls. The girls, forced to walk a long distance to their school and often enduring dangers along the way, now pedal to school every day with the bicycles TİKA donated. Thanks to the bicycles, some escaped the sexual abuse they faced in rural Kenya while going to school and others thinking about dropping out of school due to the distance decided to continue their educations.

TİKA distributed the bicycles last week to girls living in Kenya's Kakamenga county, which has dense forests. A lack of regular school buses in the remote region had proven problematic for students from impoverished families. Forced to walk at least 5 kilometers from their villages to their schools, they were often subject to abuse along the way or fatigue, affecting their performance at school.

Diana Mulemi, 16, from the town of Shinyalu, is among the recipients of a bicycle. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Mulemi said she had to walk two hours to get to school every morning and was considering dropping out. "I have to leave home at five in the morning for school. We have no school buses here and the road to school is in a poor state, so no car can go there. I had to walk 5 kilometers every day and I was so tired, I used to fall asleep in the classroom," she said. Mulemi said some classmates only went to school a few days a week because of the distance. "Some families do not allow their children to go because they were afraid something would happen to them, as it gets dark when school ends. Many friends had to skip school because of this," she added. Her school life is better now and Mulemi said she will be more concentrated on her studies and hopes to become a doctor in the future. She thanked the Turkish people for the donation.

Juddy Opele, who teaches at Lugala High School, where students had to walk every day, said girls were often subject to abuse and harassment on the road. "There are people offering motorcycle rides to students. Some offer rides to poor students in exchange for sex. We had students who had to drop out of school because of pregnancy in the past," she explained. Opele said parents were scared and in one school term alone, 15 girls dropped out because of the dangers.

Emre Yüksek, the Nairobi coordinator for TİKA, said the bicycle donations are part of a project to empower girls, boosts school attendance rates and would encourage a healthy lifestyle. Speaking to AA, Yüksek said TİKA is also working on projects to improve the infrastructure of schools, donation of books and education equipment. "We want to establish strong bonds here and make people know Turkey better," he said.

TİKA, previously a little-known agency whose work focused on Central Asian countries, expanded its projects around the globe in the past decade, including in Latin America and remote corners of Asia and Africa.

Apart from education projects in Kenya, it distributes food aid to drought-hit areas. Last April, it distributed vital foodstuffs to thousands in the country's Turkana region.