Bikes to help needy in Africa

By BOHDANA SZYDLIK
A CANBERRA student is calling for donations from the Canberra business community to get southern African families on their bikes.

For almost a year now, Michael Skene, a Year 10 student at Telopea Park school, has been collecting second hand bikes to send to Africa.

Skene has been amazed at the response to his call out for people to donate bikes.

“We started with a two line ad on All Classifieds and it’s just grown from there,” Skene said, adding that Pedal Power and other local groups have since gotten involved too.

Apart from the number of bikes received, Michael has been overwhelmed with the condition of all the bikes.

“We were expecting little one-gear, no-speed bicycles that had been sitting around, but a lot of them are almost new – people say they rode them once or twice and they’ve been in the garage since,” he said.

“Many of the bikes are in almost perfect condition. They’ve never been used or have been ridden only a few times.”

Michae l aims to send the bikes to Mozambique and South Africa, inspired by what he saw on two family trips there.

“I’ve seen how needy they are, how they’re not as privileged as us, “ Michael said.

“I’ve also seen how efficient bicycles are over there and how much use they’d be. For recreation, transport, work, everything.”

Donating bicycles to African nations has recently become more popular. Not only have donated recycled bicycles been distributed to local community health care workers but the implementation of ‘bicycle ambulances’ has enabled workers to deliver more effective services.

Mark Pate from Goodwill Bicycles Australia says second-hand bikes are often wasted in Australia.

“People are always ringing me up saying thank goodness we are there because they would have to throw them away.”

Michael has been in discussion with charities that operate in Southern Africa to see if they can help distribute the bikes. However, before he can send the bikes anywhere, he needs to raise $6000 to pay for transport.

“ActewAGl has helped with a $1500 donation and I’m hoping to get 10 other business to donate $500 each to get to our goal of $6000.”

Anyone interested in helping the bikes for Africa project can email Michael at mskene.94@hotmail.com.