A bike can change a life...
Bicycles for Humanity - Ottawa is a grass-roots initiative which aims to empower disadvantaged communities in developing countries through the provision of sustainable transport. Our work supports grassroots projects that improve access to healthcare, education, water, food and employment.
A bicycle, one of the simplest transport technologies, is affordable and can be maintained anywhere in the world with minimal tools and spare parts. Yet for the world's poorest people, living on $1 per day, even bicycles are beyond their reach. Meanwhile, in the western world we discard thousands of bicycles each year.
Simply put – unused bicycles in garages or basements can make an incredible difference to those in need of transportation to receive or provide healthcare, to get to work, or to attend school. Such bicycles represent a terrific opportunity to change the lives of those less fortunate.
In 2007 we shipped one Bicycle Empowerment Center - BEC (essentially a Bicycle Work Shop in- a-box - a shipping container, stocked with 300-350 bikes, spare parts, and tools, and other goods like soccer equipment and knapsacks) to Rundu, Namibia.
The 2008 BEC was loaded and shipped on September 27th, 2008. It has delivered to The King's Daughters project in Windhoek, where they will begin bike mechanic and project management training in February 2009.
We are currently raising funds for the next BEC planned for end of June 2009. THE NEXT BIKE COLLECTION WILL BE IN LATE SPRING/EARLY SUMMER.
Thank you for your support!