Hands of Life - Cycling

Through cycling, we provide a safe place for at-risk youth to learn about HIV and reach their full potential.
What our mission means:
Cycling: Everything we do is based upon our totally dynamic platform: the bicycle. Cycling gives people the power to reach new places and achieve more than they ever did before, all in an efficient, sustainable way. We use cycling as a platform to engage with young people. Cycling gets everyone in our community excited: people want to ride, people want bikes, and people will come from all over just to see bikes. Using this dynamic platform, we reach the youth in our community through cycling. Bicycles are the tool through which we build real relationships with these young people, which is what enables us to have a real positive impact on them.
Safe Place: We want to be an inclusive organization. This means that youth from all walks of life: girls, boys, HIV positive, HIV negative, from a village, from town, etc. All are welcome. Furthermore, building on the relationships we develop through cycling with the youth, we want them to know that we are a safe, inclusive place for them to learn and share their concerns.
At-Risk: Lesotho has the second-highest HIV prevalence rate in the world. This means that more than one in five persons is infected. The youth in Lesotho are at the greatest risk, meaning all youth in Lesotho are considered at-risk.
Learn about HIV: We seek to provide comprehensive information about HIV. This means information that is supportive and inclusive to all people regardless of status. This means that stigma and misinformation about HIV and HIV positive persons must not be tolerated. We seek to provide information on staying healthy for all people: encouraging treatment adherence, counseling and support for those living with HIV, encouraging prevention strategies, awareness, and sensitivity for HIV negative persons, and encouraging testing for all who are unsure of their status.
Reaching their full potential: We believe that the youth, being the largest age group in Lesotho, are not the future, they are the present. This means that youth need to be encouraged, and their skills need to be developed so that they may find and create good opportunities for themselves. We seek to build skill and knowledge through cycling, and to enable the young people to reach greater distances, find new opportunities, and develop technical expertise.