About this project

This spring I will be departing from San Diego, California to Washington DC by bicycle with 25 other medical students riding in the Ride for World Health (R4WH). The mission of R4WH is to address global health disparities by focusing on education, advocacy, and fundraising. This is accomplished by utilizing a national cycling event as a vehicle for change. Each year our "Coast-to-Coast Lecture Series" initiates meaningful dialogue through communities along our 3,200 mile journey. Through our efforts, we raise significant funds to be donated to non-profit organizations with goals consistent with our vision and empower our audience to become informed, active global citizens.

Education and advocacy are fundamental to the mission of R4WH. However, alone these are insufficient to generate the change we hope to see in the world. Donor money drives health efforts. This year the R4WH team will be supporting two organizations HEAL Africa and World Bicycle Relief as our beneficiaries.

World Bicycle Relief was founded in 2005 in response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami, World Bicycle Relief is a not-for-profit organization specializing in large-scale bicycle programs dedicated to providing access to independence and livelihood through the power of bicycles. Compared to walking, bicycles represent an enormouse increase in productivity and access to healthcare, education, and economic development opportunities.

HEAL Africa is based in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, a devastated region of central Africa, where war has claimed over six million lives in the past fifteen years. Formed in 1996, HEAL Africa is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide holistic care for a Congolese people through developing medical, social, and economic initiatives, such as training health professionals, strengthening social activists, and providing physical, spiritual and social healing.