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Bicycles Change Lives - updated 13th December 2011
Transport and development go hand-in-hand. Virtually everything traded, must be transported, and almost everyone needs wheels to get to work or school. Simple, affordable transport generates income opportunities in developing countries, as well as saving lots of time and back-breaking work.
In Britain, millions of bikes are thrown away or lie unused in sheds, whilst many people in Africa have no access to transport of any kind. People spend hours each day walking to collect water, firewood or to access health care, school and employment. A bicycle lightens this burden and dramatically improves their wellbeing as well as work and education opportunities helping to bring social change. A bicycle cuts travel time to a fraction and can carry passengers and heavy loads. Bikes give families the extra time to earn, learn and enjoy life.
The ever growing list below shows the countries that the bikes have been sent to since we started shipping to Africa in 1998. We have now sent more than 100 container shipments and hope to reach 40,000 bikes sent by the end of 2011 - all thanks to the donations of bikes, time and money from our many wonderful supporters. Very many thanks to you all.
| bike counter | total: | 39,340 | |
|---|---|---|---|
 Cameroon | 364 |  Liberia | 1,133 |
 Congo | 80 |  Namibia | 2,610 |
 The Gambia | 1,574 |  Nigeria | 100 |
 Ghana | 15,905 |  Sierra Leone | 85 |
 Haiti | 350 |  South Africa | 11,636 |
 Kenya | 2,238 |  Uganda | 1,013 |
 Lesotho | 453 |  Zambia | 1,160 |
 Malawi | 475 |  Tanzania | 164 |
Can you help store bikes in Chelmsford? 17 January 2012
Our main drop off point in Colchester is not easily accessible to people in central Essex who do not have a car or do not regularly visit Colchester. It would be wonderful to have a small storage facility in Chelmsford that could hold a supply of bicycles until there were enough for a van to collect and bring to us in Colchester. This would enable us to collect more bikes and have more to ship to our partners who eagerly await their next consignement from us. It is not economic to travel to pick up individual bikes from here and there but being able to pick up 25-30 at a time would be very worthwhile and justify the cost.
Do you have or know anyone who has an unused garage, large garden shed or outbuilding or small warehouse that we could use in the Chelmsford area? Ideally this would be on an ongoing basis but even something short term would be very useful. Please contact info(at)re-cycle.org or phone 01206 863111 if you may be able to help. Thank you.
Overdue thanks to Deacons Boat Yard, Southampton for 400 bikes collected and delivered to Re-Cycle
This story almost "slipped through the net" but belatedly we now give thanks to Lucas Shotts and his colleagues at Deacons Boat Yard for the mammoth collection of bikes that they recently organised and brought up to Colchester. We will post a photo as soon as we can. 400 bikes is virtually a full container load and it is the biggest single quantity that we have received this year.
Many thanks to Lucas and all at Deacons and of course to all who kindly donated their bikes.
352 bikes - our 9th shipment of 2011 loaded for BEN, South Africa
On Friday 9th December we sent the latest container shipment of bicycles to Felixstowe to depart on 16th December for The Bicycling Empowerment Network, Cape Town, South Africa. This takes the total number of bikes sent to Africa to over 39,000 and hopefully it won't be long until we reach the nice round number 40,000.
The Bicycling Empowerment Network (BEN) South Africa was established in Cape Town in 2002. The main mission of BEN is to address poverty and mobility through the promotion of the bicycle in all its forms. BEN imports used bicycles from Europe, and distributes them to low income areas, trains recipients of the bikes in safety and maintenance, establishes Bicycle Empowerment Centre's (BEC's) and encourages cities to implement bicycle planning and infrastructure.
We loaded 352 bikes including 101 ex. Royal Mail bikes and some 757 packages/items of disassembled bikes and tools to keep their workshops stocked. Many thanks as always to all who donated the bikes that are now on their way to a new life.
Action Bikes of London start partnership with Re~Cycle
Action Bikes have five stores in Central ~ West London.
Building on the already successful parts recycling scheme they run for us, Action Bikes are to become Re~Cycle drop-off points. Members of the public can now drop off not only bikes but any spare parts with a bit of life left in them. This is completely free service there is no obligation to make a purchase in store, although I am told they do like to receive biscuits ;0) Re~Cycle does ask donors of bikes to also donate some money (in-store or onine), so we can run the charity - please and thank you.
So...If you're in West London and you have a neglected steed that can be put to a second use, there is no excuse. Get yourself down to Action Bikes and hand it over! While you are in the mood to tidy up, what about taking those tyres you don't use and those pedals? Inner tubes with a hole in are very much needed, please.
They will go to Isis young offenders prison in East London to be refurbished, prior to shipping to Africa.
12 November 2011 Coleshill collection a great success - 120 bikes collected in 2 months.
The bike collection that run during September and October at Coleshill was a great success with 120 bikes being donated plus a great quantity of spare parts. Michael Groll who organised the collection delivered the bikes to us at Colchester today. Many thanks to all who donated bicycles and spare parts and helped Michael collect three times as many bikes as he had set as a target.
We are very grateful for Michael's enthusiasm and hard work in setting up and running the collection and would like to acknowledge the very generous support he received from Blubox Storage Ltd. for provided storage space for the bikes and to J S Sainsbury for assisting with the loading of the bikes and for arranging the transport from Coleshill to Colchester.
A great team effort - many thanks to all. We will shortly confirm where the bike collected will be shipped to.
New collection point in Coleshill, Warwickshire until end of October
We now have a collection point in the West Midlands area which will operate until the end of October. Many thanks to Bluebox Self Storage Limited who have provided a 20 foot shipping container to store bikes for free. Bikes can be dropped off at:
Bluebox Self Storage Limited, Trillenium, Gorsey Lane, Coleshill, Warwickshire, B46 1JU; between 09.00 and 17.00 Monday to Friday and 11.00 to 13.00 on Saturdays. On weekdays ask for Lee Smith.
The collections and transport of the bikes to Colchester is co-ordinated by Michael Groll.
Tel. 01675 467785
Email: michaelgroll67@gmail.com
The collection point is only 400m from Coleshill Parkway train station.
For more information on Bluebox Self Storage Limited visit:
http://www.blueboxselfstorage.co.uk/
or phone: 01675 470900.
Re~Cycle - Training Golf Caddies, Finding The Next Football Prodigy, And Of Course, Training Bike Mechanics
No, you have not been misdirected to the wrong website. We are publishing a series of reports from the African adventures of intrepid Re~Cycle volunteer Vanessa. She's visiting some of our partners, and all your questions will be answered below....
You Give - The first Re~Cycle project we visited was the charity Glad’s House located in Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city and main port. Liz and Bokey run the charity, which is dedicated to helping Mombasa’s street kids re-integrate into society.
We ship - Glad’s House have received 5 shipments of bikes from Re~Cycle, and ideally would like to receive a shipment every three months.
They thrive - Many of the kids are from broken homes or are orphans. For various reasons, the kids have been forced to live on the streets. Many are drug addicts, who have survived some 'fairly' traumatic experiences.
University Bike Sale - 8th October
Continuing on from the success of last year, on the 8th of October Re~Cycle will be sharing a stall with the Colchester 2020 Travel Plan Club at the University of Essex, Fresher's Fair. On offer will be a selection of refurbished bicycles for sale as well as local cycling information.
We'll be there from 12:00 until 16:00 but make sure you get there early as the bikes go quickly!
All our bikes are fully serviced by our team of qualified mechanics and come with a 60 day guarantee, so make sure you get down to Square 5 at the University on the 8th and pick up a bargain with the added bonus that your money will directly help us to send much needed bicycles and parts to our partner projects in Africa.
Can't make it on the 8th? Don't worry! We will continue to have a wide selection of bikes for sale at very reasonable prices after Fresher's Fair at our Colchester warehouse which is open 9-5 Tuesday-Friday as well as 9-1 on Satudays.
Bikes Not Bombs Seeks Mechanic Fieldworker
Our sister programme Bikes not Bombs is advertising for a mechanic fieldworker position in Uganda's northern sub-counties. Interested? See the full job description here.
