TWO BIRDERS, TWO BIKES, ONE SCHOOL
Leo and Cezary are two 18 year olds, riding around Australia on push bikes – spotting as many different types of birds as possible and raising $100,000 to build a school in a remote part of Timor-Leste.
Take five minutes to watch this fabulous film Cezary has made about their journey and goals – it’s absolutely worth it.
Cezary and Leo left on January 1st and have been camping in tents and under bridges as they make their way around the country. They are living on their savings – allocating $25 a day each for all their expenses and have braved floods, extreme heat, closed roads and road-trains in their quest to raise the A$100,000 needed to build the school.
Builecon School is outside Balibo, a three hour drive from the capital Dili. Builecon’s 134 children are being taught in a three classroom building that an Australian engineer has raised great concerns about, believing it is at risk of collapse. The money raised by Leo and Cezary will build a new four classroom building and refurbish the toilets which are currently unusable. It will also pay to establish a school garden to help address the serious malnutrition issues suffered by the the children.
At the end of August, they had reached Perth having travelled 10,000km anti-clockwise from Melbourne. Nandy, Simon and I sidetracked them to take them to Timor Leste for an extraordinary week to see the country and the children they are helping. They visited Builecon school and met with the President, the Minister of Education and the Australian Ambassador, all of whom were amazed by what the boys are doing.
As of October 10 they have crossed the Nullabor and are getting closer to home, planning to ride into Fitzroy on Friday November 1. They have managed to reach and exceed their fundraising target, which is allowing them to build a kitchen for the school, provide all the kids with backpacks full of stationery and fund a scholarship. All additional money they receive will be used to help other schools and children in Timor-Leste.
Spend it Well has built 21 schools to date and takes no administrative costs from donations – 100% of money donated will go directly to building Leo and Cezary’s school. All donations are tax deductible.
Just note “Leo and Cezary” on donation form.