Cycling and rubbish collecting go hand in hand at the charity bike ride, Cycling for the Environment and Children’s Health, being held this Sunday.

The ride is the brainchild of Hun Socheat from Cambodia Cycling and Kimpho Chrek, operation director at Asian Square Group, with the aim of raising environmental awareness while at the same time raising funds for Angkor Hospital for Children.

Participants will set off from Asian Square restaurant at 7am, walking along the river to the crocodile farm collecting rubbish as they go, before picking up bikes for the 16k ride.

The cyclists will then make their way to Phnom Krom where the route gets a little more arduous.

“We’ll take the side road to Phnom Krom and from there to the end of the village we start the challenging part of the journey – off-roading – and come back to the eco village. We’ll have some games, a lucky draw and some fun,” says Chrek.

Entrance fee is $10 per person, with the money going direct to Angkor Hospital for Children.

“We’re dividing the responsibility of the costing so Cambodia Cycling will provide the bicycles, and food and drink is sponsored by Asian Square,” says Chrek.

Hun says the two of them came up with the idea.

“We tried to think of a way of taking social responsibility and respecting the environment, but we also wanted to inspire local people to join in the rubbish collecting because the most important thing is for them to understand – it’s all of our responsibility,” says Hun.

“It’s also very important for the long-term sustainable development of Cambodia that more and more people understand how important children’s health is –we want to inspire them to get more involved.”

To register for the bike ride, please email: [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]​