Re-Cycle: Bikes to Africa, a charity that takes unwanted bicycles from Britain and ships them to Africa, need a new home on the Isle of Wight.
The late Tony Harding began collecting bikes and taking them on a regular basis to the charity’s headquarters in Colchester. Since 2014, local volunteer Sue Bailey has coordinated the collection and the bikes have been stored, free of charge, in InnerSpaces in Cowes.
However, a new home is now being sought to enable the charity to keep collecting unwanted bikes across the Island.
Sue said:
“We would like to continue to support this charity and in so doing help Islanders declutter their garages and sheds. Currently, we cannot accept bike donations because we don’t have anywhere to keep them.
“Due to increased business, Innerspaces no longer has the storage capacity to store bikes. It’s good for them, but not for us! We are looking for somewhere secure and dry to keep up to 150 bikes. If you know of somewhere that we could store the bikes, do get in touch”.
Over 1,500 bikes have been saved from going to the tip on the Island since Sue took over the reins from Tony.
Across the UK, thousands of bikes are thrown away or lie unused in sheds and garages, whilst many people in Africa have no access to transport of any kind. For some people living in parts of rural Africa, the average time spent walking to school, work, or collecting water can be 4 hours a day.
A bicycle lightens this burden and cuts travel time to a fraction, which dramatically improves an individual’s health and wellbeing as well as work and education opportunities, helping to bring social change. It can be used to carry passengers and heavy loads. Bikes give families the extra time to earn, learn and enjoy life.
You can contact Sue on [email protected] if you have any suggestions.
Why not supply these cycles to OUR people? After all many of them can barely afford basic nutrition, so they won’t be able to afford a cycle. And we have half the contents of the third-world here now anyway. So will save the transportation costs as well.
I’d rather give help to someone overseas that really needs it. The agricultural industry cries out for workers to harvest their crops but not many U.K. residents come forward. If someone can come from abroad to work then someone can move from one part of the U.K. to another to find work. There’s money to be earnt in the fields if people get off their backsides. I never had money for a bike when I was a kid, we used to build ours from bits and pieces we’d found on the tip or had been given.
You idiot, these were owned by “our people” and they were to be thrown away. Also we have public transport, they have nothing but their own two legs.
not exactly true is it sue – someone collecting water will struggle to ride a bike across rugged terrain to a water hole, let alone on the way back, with a large container of water as well.
Yet again you display an incredible level of ignorance.