Lovelyn, 15, wakes up at the crack of dawn every day and heads to a makeshift shack to gather firewood and start a fire. She crouches to the ground to cook breakfast, periodically stirring the small pot to see if the food (usually canned sardines or vegetables from her small yard) is ready.

The high school senior then calls her mother Leovina, 50, and they eat together. She misses her father, who died in 2010. After breakfast, she rushes through her bath so she can leave the house by 6 a.m. to catch the 7 o’clock flag ceremony.

Lovelyn’s house is deep in the rolling rice fields of a farming village in northern Isabela. To get to her school three kilometers away, she has to walk for five minutes to the center of the purok (district), where seven or more kids from her neighborhood cram into a tricycle that will bring them to school.

If she misses the ride, she braces herself for the long, arduous journey by foot, across dirt roads that are dusty during summer and muddy when it rains during monsoon season.

By the time she sees the archway of her school, Lovelyn is sweaty and tired from all the walking, the energy from the paltry breakfast she had now all but consumed.

Worse, she sometimes misses her first subject. Tired from the long walk, she also finds it hard to focus on the classroom activity for the rest of the day. Last year, she luckily landed in the top 10 of her class. With her grueling morning routine, however, Lovelyn is not too confident she can repeat the feat this year.

In 2010, her father died from over-fatigue and heat stroke while working in the farm. Her mother says the doctors told her that trying to save her husband’s life would not only be costly; there was also no guarantee that he would go back to his old self.

And so they were forced to say goodbye. Lovelyn, who was only 12 then, thought it was the end of her dream to become a nurse.

Not to quit

But young as she is, Lovelyn was determined not to quit. If anything, she says the hardships strengthened her resolve to study harder so that someday, as a nurse, she might ease her mother’s burdens while helping other poor Isabelinos.

After her father’s death, Lovelyn mustered the courage to try for scholarship and financial assistance from their church and other benefactors.

She also works as part-time helper to a family. There are times, however, when it is simply not enough.

Her mother found work as househelp in Manila, but recently had to go back to their village to look after her ailing father. Less than a year after graduation, Lovelyn says she has to constantly push herself to overcome these hurdles.

“The Orange Bike project is anchored on ING’s global CSR initiative of ‘Creating Chances for Children,’” explains Zondy Garcia, country manager of ING Bank in Manila. “The goal is to give children like Lovelyn opportunities to have a chance of a better life.”

Lovelyn is one of more than 600 grade school pupils in Isabela who will be the beneficiaries of the Orange Bike project of ING, an Asia-wide initiative with the Philippines as pilot.

The project aims to support kids who live in far-flung areas with little access to transportation to get to school. By providing bikes, ING hopes to ease the children’s arduous journey to school. A bike ride can also benefit their health.

The long journey affects school attendance and their academic performance, says Garcia, so something must be done to address their plight.

Of the 14 markets in Asia where ING operates, Garcia says the Philippines was chosen as the project’s launch pad. This is in recognition of ING Manila’s history in local community involvement as well as its integrated and comprehensive approach to corporate social responsibility.

World Vision, ING’s partner nongovernment organization in the project, helped identify the beneficiary schools. They also formed a Bicycle Supervisory Committee composed of parents, teachers and local government officials—a collaboration that will be crucial to the project’s success, says Fe Olonan, World Vision program officer.

Another global NGO partner, World Bicycle Relief, facilitates the supply of bikes to the project beneficiaries.

For Lovelyn, who is graduating in March, every centavo counts. With a bike, she will be able to save her monthly stipend to help her family make ends meet. She can finally say goodbye to the grueling walks, and focus her energy on her academic performance.

In the next five years, 5,000 other children like Lovelyn living in remote villages in the Philippines, China and Thailand will have their own orange bikes. In time, the beneficiaries will not be biking their way to their schools, but to what ING hopes is a brighter future.