bicycles-for-humanity.org
Bicycles for Humanity is a global, grassroots organization that collects unused and unwanted and bicycles and ships them to communities that need them in Africa. According to the organization's website, 10 million bicycles end up in landfills every year. B4H works to combat this growing environmental burden while solving the problem of mobility in developing economies. As a grassroots organization, B4H has no office or paid staff. The organization is comprised of 50 chapters in eight countries. Volunteers collect unused bicycles which are then sent to partner organizations in Africa. The bicycles arrive in shipping containers which are retrofitted as bike shops and stocked with tools, becoming a local bike shop, or Bicycle Empowerment Center, for the receiving community. Bike recipients are trained in bike repair and maintenance as well as skills and business development. In 10 years, B4H has shipped over 100,000 bicycles and set up 125 Bicycle Empowerment Centers in communities across Africa.</p><p><strong>Where They Work</strong></p><p>Bicycles for Humanity has numerous collection chapters in Canada, the US, Europe, Asia, Mexico, and Oceania. They ship bicycles to Namibia/ Angola, South Africa, and Uganda, and are looking to expand across the African continent.</p>
" style="background-image:url('https://momentummag.com/wp-content/uploads/mp-import/Bicycles For Humanity.jpg')">
worldbicyclerelief.org
World Bicycle Relief provides students, entrepreneurs, and healthcare workers in Africa with specially designed bicycles through work-to-own or study-to-own programs. The organization has its own specially designed “Buffalo Bike,” sourced from manufacturers in Asia and shipped to WBR facilities in Africa where it is assembled by the organization's 60+ full-time bike mechanics. The 50 pound, one-speed bicycle is specifically designed to carry heavy loads and withstand long journeys across rough African terrain. But because even the most durable machines do require occasional maintenance, WBR has also trained over 900 field mechanics to ensure that each recipient of a Buffalo Bike has access to long-term support for their bicycle, creating a network of entrepreneurs in the process. Established in 2005, WBR relief has since put 222,650 Buffalo Bikes into the hands of individuals across the African continent, with 47,200 of those bicycles delivered in 2013 alone.</p><p><strong>Where They Work</strong></p><p>World Bicycle Relief is based out of Chicago and hosts fundraising events across the US. They have so far provided bikes in Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.</p>
" style="background-image:url('https://momentummag.com/wp-content/uploads/mp-import/World Bicycle Relief.jpg')">
recycleabicycle.org
Recycle-a-Bicycle is a New York City-based bike shop and non-profit organization that uses the bicycle as a tool to foster youth development. Through initiatives such as Green Jobs Training Program, Recycled Arts, Kids Ride Club, and Summer Youth Employment Program, RAB seeks to engage NYC's youth community and promote healthy living and environmental awareness. RAB accepts donated bicycles which are refurbished by staff and youth volunteers. Some are resold to support the organization's efforts, while others are given to the youth through the Earn-a-Bike program and annual Bike Bonanza. RAB recycles around 1,200 donated bicycles each year, trains 100 youth in bike repair and runs 17 classroom programs in each of New York's boroughs.</p><p><strong>Where They Work</strong></p><p>Recycle-a-Bicycle has two storefronts, in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and an education center in Queens.</p>
" style="background-image:url('https://momentummag.com/wp-content/uploads/mp-import/Recycle-A-Bicycle.jpg')">
mayapedal.org
MayaPedal is a small, Guatemalan-based organization which accepts donated bikes from the US and Canada and uses their components to create a variety of “Bicimaquinas.” Bicimaquinas are simple machines that use pedal power to perform a variety of tasks that would otherwise require electricity or hand cranks. Staff and volunteers in the workshop build machines such as water pumps, corn threshers, and blenders, all suited to meet locals' needs and all powered by pedaling. The Bicimaquinas are much more efficient than hand cranks and provide their owners with productive machines when electricity is unavailable or economically inaccessible. MayaPedal also sells refurbished bikes, offers bike repair services, and makes their Bicimaquina designs freely available online in an effort to encourage sustainable, pedal-powered development worldwide.</p><p><strong>Where They Work</strong></p><p>MayaPedal is based in San Andrés Itzapa, Guatemala.</p>
" style="background-image:url('https://momentummag.com/wp-content/uploads/mp-import/MayaPedal.jpg')">
88bikes.org
The 88Bikes Foundation donates new bicycles to girls worldwide, with a particular focus on victims of human trafficking. 88Bikes purchases new bicycles and endows them to girls through orphanages, schools or partner NGOs, a process which they refer to as Joy-Based-Philanthrophy. Sponsors buy a bicycle for $88, the approximate total cost of a new bicycle in the developing world. The bikes are purchased, transported, and assembled locally, ensuring that the girls receive geographically-appropriate bikes and supporting the local economy in the process. The girls are trained in basic bike repair and maintenance and are connected with their individual sponsors through photos and letters.</p><p><strong>Where They Work</strong></p><p>In order to ensure that all of the donations received go towards their charitable activities, 88Bikes does not maintain an office or staff, but has a mailbox in Seattle, WA. They have donated bikes to girls from the Balkans to Cambodia, and Mongolia to Mozambique.</p>
" style="background-image:url('https://momentummag.com/wp-content/uploads/mp-import/88Bikes Foundation.jpg')">
bikeswithoutborders.org
Bikes Without Borders undertakes two separate projects that each have the ultimate goal of empowering people using bicycles. BWB sources new bicycles from international charities and suppliers which they retrofit and deliver to community health workers in Malawi. The bicycles are fitted with removable ambulance trailers – designed and built in Malawi – which enable health workers to transport patients from rural communities to health care facilities with much greater ease. They also organize The Great Bike Recycle, an ongoing used bicycle drive in Toronto, Canada. To minimize costs and their environmental footprint, BWB does not ship the bikes internationally, instead donating them to partner organizations in the Greater Toronto Area who then distribute the bicycles to youth in underserved Toronto communities.</p><p><strong>Where They Work</strong> </p><p>Bikes Without Borders is based in Toronto and operates in Toronto and Malawi.</p>
" style="background-image:url('https://momentummag.com/wp-content/uploads/mp-import/Bikes Without Borders.jpg')">
tripsforkids.org
Trips for Kids provides mountain biking adventures and Earn-a-Bike programs for at-risk and underprivileged youth. The programs aim to empower young people by building confidence, fostering a sense of achievement and promoting environmental awareness through cycling. </p><p><strong>Where They Work</strong></p><p>Trips for Kids has chapters across the US, in Canada, in Israel, and in Sierra Leone.</p>
" style="background-image:url('https://momentummag.com/wp-content/uploads/mp-import/Trips for Kids.JPG')">
An efficient, economical, and reliable machine, a bicycle can mean the difference between struggling and succeeding for many people worldwide.
Bicycles offer individuals in developing economies a sustainable, affordable mode of transportation. A person traveling by bike can cover 4 times the distance as someone walking in the same amount of time, and carry 5 times the amount of cargo. Students can access better educational opportunities, entrepreneurs can travel further and carry more goods, and healthcare workers can reach more patients in less time.
But the impact of a bicycle is not limited to travel, and its ability to effect change does not take place only in the global south. The bicycle economy provides jobs, skills development, and restorative therapy to underserved communities both locally and abroad.
These seven organizations offer innovative programs that harness the power of bicycles to achieve tangible social change.
Used bicycles are an under-utilized resource for human development, local or internationally. The challenge especially for international programs is to establish an efficient business model to collect and ship them. Mark (below) is right to be concerned about efficiency, and many amateur efforts in the global “North” do inefficiently send a disparate, low-quality mix of used bikes to countries in the “South”. I’m less worried about their cost than their quality. (Generally they are paid for by the senders, so their “cost” to recipients is generally low.)
However, there are serious professional organizations which efficiently collect bikes, professionally sort them, and efficiently pack and dispatch decent-quality bikes (500 in a 40′ container) along with thousands of dollars of used and new spare parts, and they get bikes on a unit basis to Africa at a fraction of a new bike. The biggest and best is Bikes for the World (USA) which ships 15,000-20,000 bikes annually, together with thousands of dollars in used but still-usable spare parts from major bike share programs and some new stuff from industry partners, others include Re-Cycle (UK), Pedals for Progress (USA), Bikes Not Bombs (USA). If the bike is reasonably good quality and in repairable condition or better, it can be serviced (and generate employment) in the receiving country and kept running far longer than the cheap stuff generally available on the local market. All these groups have a business model which recruits community groups in scattered communities to collect bikes from the public, bulking them in one spot and compacting them with inexpensive volunteer labor–a rewarding community service project. And then the non-profit collects them and, with volunteers, dispatches them in shipping containers.
So don’t drink the “bikes designed for Africa” Kool-Aid, or allegations of used bikes being inferior, make you overlook other possibilities. We all know there is enough need for bikes to go around. Quality used bikes can be delivered overseas, at competitive prices, and reach far-poorer households than an expensive new bike.
The Trips for Kids (TFK) chapter in Charlotte is an amazing organization, mentoring young people on the essentials of becoming effective bicyclists.
These are some great organizations. However, I would encourage donors to be cautious about programs which ship used bicycles from developed countries to developing countries. Often the cost of shipping can be close to the cost of a new bicycle purchase in the intended country. Not only does it support the local economy, but it ensures that the bikes are spec’ed for the local conditions. World Bicycle Relief, for example, builds bikes designed for east African conditions in east Africa. The end result is a productive economic tool.
If you have a used bike to donate and you live in a western country, I recommend keeping it local and donating it to a program like Recycle-a-Bicycle.
http://www.bikes4all.org.il/
More examples of how bicycles can make a difference. And great to post this when many people are thinking about their holiday giving.
Comments are closed.