Advocate Launches – By Jeressa Jeremy
Advocate Launches Ride Cause
Joshuanette Francis, the 2025 recipient of Antigua CIBC Caribbean Unsung Hero Award, officially launched “Ride for a Cause “ yesterday during an appearance on Observer AM.
This year-long stationary bike campaign is designed to bring national attention to the systemic infrastructure gaps facing the disabled community across the twin-island state.
The initiative — spearheaded by Francis’ non-profit organization Good Humans 268 — focuses on the inherent barriers facing residents living with disabilities.
The campaign centers on a stationary bike that will be transported to 300 different locations across Antigua and Barbuda throughout 2026.
Participants are invited to ride for 30 minutes at each stop—including schools, beaches, and historic forts—to symbolize the often-invisible struggles of those with physical impairments.
“The bike itself represents how you can see disability,” Francis stated. “You’re moving your foot, but you’re not actually moving. Sometimes it feels and looks like we’re not going anywhere, but we’re actually going far.”
During the discussion, Francis emphasized that the campaign is strictly about visibility rather than fundraising.
“The objective for Ride for a Cause is to get individuals with disabilities more awareness. It is not a fundraising campaign; it’s an awareness campaign. The idea is to take the stationary bike to 300 locations… we want to get thousands of people talking about disability,” she said.
A primary objective of the campaign is Project RED, a long-term infrastructure goal to retrofit at least 10 schools across the country to become fully accessible. Francis identified the Antigua Girls High School (AGHS) and the Sir Novelle Richards Academy as priority sites, noting that existing architectural barriers, such as upper-level classrooms and a lack of lifts, currently prevent students with mobility aids from attending.
To emphasize the scale of the issue, she explicitly referenced historical data during the interview:
“Based on the census in 2011, there’s 16,000 individuals in Antigua and Barbuda who have some form of a disability. Sixteen thousand. And what we need to do is to ensure that all of those individuals are captured.”
Francis highlighted the case of a student at Potter’s Primary who is currently unable to transition to her school of choice, AGHS, due to these physical constraints.
“Accessibility isn’t just the bathroom,” Francis noted. “It is how she gets to first form. We are not at the place where she can just go to another secondary school because there is no completely accessible secondary school on island.”
The tour is scheduled to visit all 80 schools on island and will include a three-day segment in Barbuda. Following the 2026 census, the organization plans to partner with the Statistics Department to conduct a specialized disability study to gather accurate data on age, gender, and specific needs to better prioritize national resources.
