A group of teenagers in Chuzagang, Bhutan, are paying forward the opportunities they’ve been afforded to the rest of their community. Earlier this year, 24 students received bicycles as a donation from Wheels4Life through their local READ Center. Today, they’re using those bikes to do educational outreach in nearby villages.

The bikes were intended to help these students get to school, because many walk up to four kilometers each way. When getting to school every day is an obstacle, their long-term education is at risk.

The students are using their new bikes to transform their community. They use the bikes to get to school, but also have taken the initiative to ride around the community and tell other villagers about the READ Center. They also meet once a month to conduct an environmental cleanup campaign in their village, biking from one area to the next.

READ Bhutan Country Director, Thinley Choden, has dubbed these students “READ Agents” — they have become leaders in their community, promoting education and social responsibility. Leading by example, they are raising important awareness among their peers of the rich resources available to them at the READ Center and their responsibility to put them to good use and create new opportunities for themselves, their families and their community.