What is Bikes for Humanity?
Communities in need suffer due to lack of access to employment, education and health care. Bicycles are a powerful, sustainable, simple, and appropriate technology to support people in these communities to improve their own livelihood.
Founded in 2009 with the support of many volunteers and sponsors, Bikes for Humanity Sydney is part of a global network.
Our purpose is to recycle and buy bikes to provide to communities in need overseas.
Our objectives for the next two years are:
- develop efficient systems for collection and delivery of used bikes
- encourage people to donate, fundraise or volunteer for our projects
- raise funds to send and buy bikes
- assess, monitor and evaluate in-country project delivery and partners
- maintain strong governance systems and effective operations
A rehabilitation center for street children in Namibia.
Our organisation is committed to these values:
- We RESPECT the time and effort our volunteers provide
- We create SIMPLE, LONG TERM solutions to improve peoples lives
- Our Supporters have FUN and achieve a sense of GIVING
- We CARE for our volunteers, supporters and those in need
- We Value SUSTAINABILTIY & TRANSPARENCY
- We are a SMALL and nimble organisation
An estimated 1.2 million bikes are sold in Australia every year. This means there is a large untapped resource of second bikes waiting for a new life. Our aim is to collect the best of these bikes along with a donation to send them to reliable partner organisations overseas.
Do bikes make a difference?
Compared to walking, bikes give people a big jump in productivity. They save a lot of time and energy moving people and stuff around.
Here are some examples of the amazing power of bikes:
- Bicycles increase carrying capacity, five times as much as compared to walking.
- Bicycles increase the distance a person can travel by four times compared to walking.
- Bicycles save time; approximately three hours for every ten miles traveled compared to walking.
Bikes for Humanity Sydney is part of Bicycles for Humanity International and the Bicycling Empowerment Network is our major partner distributing bikes in Africa.
What do our partners do?
In the Bikes 4 Namibia project our in-country partner – the Bicycling Empowerment Network (BEN) turns our shipping container into a ‘Bicycle Empowerment Centre’. The container becomes a pre-fabricated bike workshop providing skills training, employment and business opportunities to the community.
Our Namibian partner has provided over 23 centers that have distributied bicycles for the transport of medical staff and equipment, and to assist people to get from A to B when they otherwise would have walked. Rather than sitting in the garage your old bike could remove the tyranny of distance for HIV nurses and educators. Find out more about how to donate your bike and get it to Africa.
BEN Namibia project locations
