THAE Su Wai will no longer need to trudge 10km for two hours to and from lessons, she told AFP, beaming.

“I’ll have more time to study and play with friends,” she said, as she excitedly wheels away her new bicycle at Nhaw Kone Village school near Yangon.

The 11-year-old is among the first 200 students to receive bicycles as part of “Lesswalk”, the brainchild of Mandalay entrepreneur Mike Than Tun Win.

He grew up and was educated in Singapore before returning home eight years ago with a business degree.

“I saw students walking for many hours to get to school and I felt really sorry for them,” the 33-year-old told AFP.

So when Mike heard that bike-sharing companies oBike, Ofo and Mobike had pulled out from Singapore and Malaysia, leaving thousands of cycles in “graveyards”, he grabbed his chance.

The tech investor bought up 10,000 bikes earlier this year and shipped them to Myanmar.

After exchanging the bike-share lock for a seat on the back, he is now starting to hand out the bright orange and yellow cycles.

He hopes they will help keep more kids in school for longer, giving them an education so they can “escape from poverty”. – June 25, 2019.