World power brokers track steps to earn bikes for kids
DAVOS, Switzerland – As many as 1,000 politicians, CEOs and celebrities who gathered in this alpine village for the World Economic Forum this week will strap on Fitbit exercise trackers and walk at least 3.5 miles over the next three days.The exercise, billed as this year's Davos Challenge: Walk for Education, will allow some of the world's most powerful people to experience in a small way what millions of children do twice a day to attend school, said Ruth-Anne Renaud, global marketing director for World Bicycle Relief."We want to make visible an invisible issue, and show that there's action they can take," Renaud said. By tracking their own steps, the participants will appreciate the distance and understand the problem for children who must walk long distances to school, she said, and they will recognize a simple solution.Since its founding in 2005 by F.K. Day, a Chicago businessman, World Bicycle Relief has delivered 220,000 bikes to students, health care workers and small entrepreneurs in countries including Angola, Colombia, Kenya, Indonesia, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe that lack good, inexpensive transportation in some areas, Renaud said. Studies show that bikes made it easier for kids to get to school, boosting attendance and grades, Renaud said.UBS Optimus, a foundation created in 1999 by UBS, a Swiss-based global investment and wealth management fund, pledged to donate 2,500 bicycles if the delegates to the forum collectively walk 9,321 miles over the next three days, foundation CEO Phyllis Kurlander Costanza said. The tracking kicked off at midnight Wednesday.The bicycles, which cost $134 each and are designed to be simple and rugged with few breakable parts, will go to South Africa, where 500,000 of the nation's 17 million students walk more than 3.7 miles (6 km) each way to school, a trek that can take more than an hour each way, Renaud said.Alberto Bello, editorial director of Grupo Expansion, a media group that runs Mexico's biggest sports and news websites, strapped on his red Fitbit bracelet and pledged to walk enough to secure two bicycles. He asked Renaud whether he could persuade the organization to select some rural parts of Mexico for its next campaign."The most important ways to develop a country is to educate the people," Bello said. "To do that, you have to deal with everything that impedes education."
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