Family Strengthening Participants Finish Training in Allianz's Ride Safe Program

Ride Safe is a cycling advocacy campaign by Allianz PNB Life, and its latest activity was conducted in collaboration with SOS Children’s Villages Philippines and Tambay Cycling Hub, an independent bike repair shop in Pasig City. The goal of the current project is to help participants get more employment opportunities and options by training them in bike repair and teaching them lessons in business management so as to serve the many Filipinos who had turned to biking during the covid pandemic.

The president of Tambay Cycling Hub, Kevin Skinker, opened his bike repair shop to help bikers of all walks of life, from recreational bikers to those who bike as a means of transportation and livelihood. He supports the Ride Safe program because not everyone can afford the time or resources to learn proper bike repair.

Two participants work together in fixing a bike during a session outside.

Most of the participants being trained are part of the SOS Children’s Villages' family-strengthening program, particularly those who want to open bike repair services of their own. They are bringing home the skills they learned in bike repair and business management to sustain their families and communities. Thus, this Ride Safe entrepreneurship project provides services to bikers since biking became more popular during the pandemic.

Among the participants who wanted to set up a bike shop of their own once they returned from the training is Tatay Ricky.

Tatay Ricky is the sole breadwinner of his family, and he rents space to operate a vulcanizing shop. He is currently sending his two children to school, one in college and the youngest in grade 9, and they’re both receiving scholarships.

During his work in the vulcanizing shop, many people would ask him to fix their bikes, but he didn’t have the appropriate skills at the time to properly service them. For him, the Allianz Ride Safe entrepreneurship project was a way to significantly improve his skills and his livelihood. Tatay Ricky wants to use all he learned from the training to build his own bike shop and run it together with his family.

They study the parts of the bike together, diligently paying attention and taking notes.

The training also opened opportunities for other people who didn’t have a background with vehicles, such as Nanay Maria.

Nanay Maria was a barangay health worker who assisted pregnant women before she attended the training. She joined out of interest in learning how to fix a bike and plans to also open a bike shop of her own and sell bike accessories. She envisions her shop to be something that can help others and be passed down to her children when it flourishes.

Nanay Maria examines the bike she is about to practice on.

Moreover, the training gave her a sense of empowerment. Nanay Maria realized that even women could repair bikes, the same as men. “Kahit babae pala kami, kaya naman.” (So even if we’re women, we can do it.)

Allianz Ride Safe provided an opportunity for many different people to empower themselves and others by teaching them the skills they needed to realize their dreams and connect with others. For the participants of the family-strengthening program, the training was an opportunity to both enrich themselves, and learn with other people.

Visit sosphilippines.org to learn why we collaborate to help families.