The past 12 months proved to be a slightly unusual challenge for Re-Cycle, which meant we were unable to send all of the planned containers to our African partners compared to 2019. However, we managed to send 9 containers equating to 4604 bikes along with spare parts.
As a charity that relies so heavily on the help from our amazing group of volunteers, it has not been an easy to start 2021. The Re-Cycle staff still managed to prep, load, and send a container of bikes to our partner in The Gambia during January.
Due to the continued lockdown and a dip in bike donations in February, we were unable to send the 2 containers planned for African partners, but we hope and intend to catch up with these shipments later in the year.
We have a target of 14 containers or around 7,000 bikes for 2021 and are very grateful for every donated bike received to help us fill them. We always need more so if you have a bike that you no longer use please consider donating it to the charity and help us achieve our target this year.
We have some excellent partnerships in place and are about to relaunch our corporate partnership with Halfords – we are very appreciative of their ongoing support and since our partnership began, we have received over 60,000 bikes. They continue to receive used bikes in over 70 of their stores nationwide.
Many of the bikes for our first container of the year were received from Greater Anglia, these were bikes which had been abandoned at various stations. We are grateful for their support and are also delighted to announce a new partnership created last year with Gladwell’s Pet and Country stores who are also receiving bikes at six of their stores in the Anglia region.
We are constantly looking for additional drop off points to help widen our reach for bikes, so if you or someone you know can help please do get in touch [email protected]
A brief reflection on Africa
The resilience of our African partners has proved remarkable with them also having to adapt very quickly to the changing global situation. With a reduced number of bikes to support their programmes, they have made the best use of the bikes that Re-Cycle has sent them, and we have received some inspirational stories from the field.
WYCE in The Gambia recently delivered 30 bikes to school children who travel for hours to get to school each day in very remote parts of the country. VBP in Ghana have taught girls to learn how to fix and repair bikes to enable them to go to school and help more with chores at home. Kaloko Trust in Zambia have enabled local people to have access to a bike to get to market, school and work, including enabling a local pastor to spread his words to more remote communities and BEN in South Africa have continued to support deprived areas in and around Cape Town through the pandemic.
All this great work would not be possible without the support of our donors here in the UK. We, and our partners, are so grateful for the gift of your used bike. The difference one bike makes, in today’s challenging world, is even more life changing than ever.
