Two Birders, Two Bikes, more than one school!
Leo and Cezary set off on Jan 1, 2024 as two 18 year olds, aiming to ride around Australia on push bikes – spotting as many different types of birds as possible and raising $100,000 to build a school in a remote part of Timor-Leste.
They returned 9 months and 15,000km later, having raised a massive $140,000. In July 2025 they opened the new 4 classroom and teacher’s room school and kitchen which their money funded. The money they raised also funded backpacks filled with stationery for all 140 students at the school, a school garden which is under construction and a 2 year scholarship for a teenage girl.
They still have $30,000 of funding and are now working to raise the remaining money they need to build a second school.
This fabulous 5 minute film Cezary has made about their journey and goals gives a great sense of their journey.
Cezary and Leo were totally self-funded, camping in tents and under bridges as they made their way around the country. They lived off their savings – allocating $25 a day each for all their expenses and braved floods, extreme heat, closed roads and road-trains in their quest to raise the money to build a new school for the children of Builecon Village.
Builecon School is outside Balibo, a three hour drive from the capital Dili. Builecon’s 140 children were being taught in a three classroom building that an Australian engineer had raised great concerns about, believing it was at risk of collapse.
BEFORE PHOTOS
AFTER PHOTOS
