Re-Cycle bicycles for African villagers
by TreeHugger on 11.15.04
Hands up if you have a old bike in the garage gathering dust? Wouldn't it be better off making dust? Like allowing African school kids and low paid workers to hoon off down the dirt track, independent of expensive taxis (some households spend 25% of their income on transport). Or assisting women to collect water and firewood without them being the real beasts of burden. Or allowing HIV/AIDS awareness educators and volunteers to reach remote villages. Programs like Britain's ::Re-Cycle want your dusty old push-bike, so they can achieve such worthwhile outcomes.
Together with their partners, such as ::Afribike, Re-Cycle collect and distribute bicycles and parts to less developed countries, where the locals are trained in repair and maintenance. Afribike's mission is to promote the use of non-motorized transport (bicycles, workcycles) as a means of poverty alleviation, job creation, education, sustainable development, and environmental protection. How can you argue with that? Go on create some extra space in your garage. A like-minded organisation in the US is the International Bike Fund's ::Village Bicycle Program[by WM]
Let's not forget Bikes Not Bombs, not only do they send as many as 1500 bikes a year to Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti, but they set up a pre-employment program called Earn-a-Bike that trains local youth in bicycle mechanics and allows them to commit a certain number of hours to rebuilding bikes to be sent overseas in exchange for a bike of their own.
http://www.bikesnotbombs.org