An unused bicycle getting in the way in your garage can
change the life of a person living in rural Africa.
“A bike sitting in someone’s basement gathering dust can
make a huge difference in someone’s life,” says Seb Oran, co-founder of the Ottawa chapter of
Bicycles for Humanity. “It provides access to food, water, health care,
employment and social services.”
She explains that typically 60 per cent of people in rural Africa have no access to transportation other than their
feet.
The organization purchases a shipping container and fills it
with as many donated bikes as possible, usually around 350. Bike tools, spare
parts and soccer goods are used to fill in the gaps in the container. In Namibia,
the shipping container becomes a bike workshop with the help of Bicycles for
Humanity’s partner, the Bicycling Empowerment Network.
BEN provides the local accountability by choosing the
community to receive the shipment and providing the training to local people to
repair the bikes.
In Namibia,
a portion of the bikes will go to health care workers and orphaned youth to
help them get to school. The rest of them are sold and the money helps the
community with its needs.
For example, the first container benefited the House of Love
for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, which Oran visited last year.
“With the proceeds (of the bike sales) they were able to
build a two-room cement building,” Oran
says. That building is being used as a classroom and teachers’ room.
She also met some of the customers who purchased the bikes
and saw the difference transportation meant in their lives.
“They were able to bring more goods to market and to go
further to markets,” Oran
says.
The bike shop remains as a source of employment and
sustainability to keep the bikes in good working order.
The bikes are disassembled for transportation so more can
fit in the shipping container. Part of the training in Namibia is
learning how to reassemble and tune up the bikes before they are sold.
Bicycles for Humanity Ottawa is working on collecting its
fourth shipping container of bikes. A collection day will be held from 9 a.m. to
12 p.m. on May 30 at Jack May Pontiac Buick GMC, 3788 Prince of Wales Dr.
Oran
says the organization is looking for mountain bikes this year because of the
terrain of the village that will receive them. Bikes should be in working
conditions with no major rust, although it’s acceptable to need a tune-up.
Donations of bike parts and tools are welcome. Cash
donations also help with shipping costs.
“Every dollar is like gold to us,” Oran says. “One hundred per cent of donations
goes directly to the transportation costs of the bikes.”
Bicycles for Humanity also collects backpacks and soccer
equipment (other than shoes which can’t get through customs) to stuff between
the bikes in the shipping container.
For more information on the project visit www.bicycles-for-humanity.org/ottawa.
margaret.sambol@nepeanthisweek.com