Cyclists from throughout Cambodia and international participants can now sign up to the not-for-profit Village Focus International's Angkor Wat Bike Event, in association with CIMB Bank of Malaysia.

Entering its eighth year, the annual charity fundraiser will take place on Saturday November 30, and will feature three rides of varying distances: 100 kilometres, 30 kilometres and 17 kilometres.

The Angkor Wat Bike4Kids ride encourages participants of all ages and fitness levels to cycle through the Angkor Wat temple complex to raise funds for local charities supporting vulnerable children and victims of sex trafficking.

Rick Reece, director of Village Focus International said, “The Angkor Wat Bike4Kids offers bike riders from around the world to join in solidarity to ride on the Angkor road through forests, rice fields and the magnificent ancient temples complex.

“This road is relatively care free in the early morning hours and we encourage friends and families to cycle together.”

Village Focus International and Terre Des Hommes-Netherland hope this year’s ride will be its biggest and aim to raise over $60,000, as well as beating previous participation figures.

Vath Chamroeun, secretary general of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia, said that some of the funds raised will be used to help children living with parents in prison.

“This project works to identify the most immediate needs of children, their mothers and pregnant women living in prison,” he said.

Children, their mothers and pregnant women in prison here do not have access to suitable health care, adequate nutrition or education. The government budgets about 60 cents per prisoner per day, and incarceration is even more difficult for women who have to take their children into prison with them.

Hang Piphal, country director at Village Focus International, said four organisations will benefit from the Bike4kids ride: Il Nodo; Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children's Rights; the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center; and Aple.

She added that in addition, money raised from the ride will be used to construct kindergartens in prisons in three provinces – Siem Reap, Battambang, and Banteay Meanchey.

Bike ride registration for foreigners is $85 and includes a race shirt and another shirt as a gift. Cambodian registration costs $25.