Perth News
Wednesday 8 February, 2012
Perth bikes changing lives in Namibia
“Please forward our gratitude to the community in Perth and your organization Bicycles for Humanity for their kind gesture to open their hearts and hands to the less fortunate people of our society.” Joseph – Catholic Aids Action, Erongo
This week B4H WA Chairman, David Tucker, along with major sponsor representative, Werner Ewald of Bannerman Resources were privileged to visit Mr Elephant’s bike shop in the township of DRC near Swakopmund, Namibia. There David and Werner met with Mr Elephant and Joseph Tjitikulu representing Catholic Aids Action and Joseph’s CAA volunteers from nearby Mondesa who are being trained as bike mechanics and how to run a bike shop.
They are working on the bikes that B4H WA volunteers collected and packed into a shipping container in September last year. The container and bikes will in due course be relocated to Mondesa. In the meantime volunteer training is progressing well. The volunteers, all ladies, told David “ Mr Elephant is a very good teacher – I never expected to be a bike mechanic.”
But already there are a number of reconditioned bikes on the ‘FOR SALE’ rack. CAA is receiving a share of the proceeds of every bike sold, to assist with their community health programs.
Joseph went on to say “This project will definitely put a smile on the faces of the volunteers who are directly involved in the project and I believe also on their families that are benefiting from our volunteers.”
Thursday 12 January, 2012
B4H WA – 315 bikes landed in Namibia - NOW for container number 2
Shipping and Customs delays notwithstanding, our first load of bikes is now in the hands of Mr Elephant and Catholic AIDS Action to be set up as a new Bicycle Empowerment Centre in Mondesa, Swakopmund, Namibia. These bikes will soon be changing lives for people in Mondesa, not only by providing better mobility, but also supporting the heath care efforts of Catholic AIDS Action in Mondesa who will benefit from income from sales and maintenance of bikes. Photos in our next newsletter.
In the meantime we have not been idle. Bicycles for Humanity WA (Inc) has been building relationships with new partners that will contribute significantly to meeting our aims. These include the owner of Hamilton Hill Plaza shopping centre, who has offered space for bike collections and promotion assistance, and Dismantle (in Fremantle http://dismantle.org.au/ – creating opportunities that empower people to adopt cycling as part of their everyday lives, for the betterment of the individual, the community and the planet.” B4H and Dismantle will co-operate on bicycle collection and maintenance repair workshops.
We have also established contact with Perth Mountain Bike Club who are promoting our work through their website http://perthmtb.asn.au/node/33520 and appealing to their members to become involved…… And, we have been contacted by Ausbin Mini Skips offering to send bikes our way rather than to the metal recycling yard. All good! …. and more soon!
Now the B4H WA team is gearing up for a new bike collection effort in February with the aim of having enough bikes to load a second container by the end of March.
Dates, times and venues for bike collections in February, 2012 will be posted very soon on our website at: http://www.bicyclesforhumanity.com/perth/perth
Sunday 25 September 2011
B4H WA - First container ready to ship
At a working bee yesterday, when most would rather Preliminary Final, a team of a dozen or so dedicated volunteers completed packing a 40ft shipping container with 315 bikes. This container is booked for shipping from Fremantle on October 4, and scheduled to arrive in Walvis Bay, Namibia on 7 November for delivery to the Bicycling Empowerment Network. BEN will use the container to establish a Bicycle Empowerment Centre as a community project in a needy village in Namibia – changing lives for Namibians.
At a sausage sizzle after the packing was all done, B4H WA Chairman, David Tucker congratulated the whole team of volunteers, “To reach this milestone in less than 6 months from the decision to establish a new Chapter in Perth is an unbelievable achievement. It is a testimony to all our volunteers who have given their time and worked so hard since bike collections commenced in early July.”
Wednesday 3 August 2011
B4H WA reaches half way to its first container load
In spite of Perth’s wind and squally showers on Saturday our intrepid band of volunteers collected another 140 bikes at Challenge Stadium (No 4 Car Park) and at Swanview Aquatic Centre Car Park. That means we now have around 200 of the 400 mountain/hybrid bikes we need for our container load for shipping to Namibia, including bikes also collected through our bike shop partner – The Bicycle Entrepreneur (TBE).
Our next Collection Days will be Saturday, August 13th and 27th from 9am to 3pm, at Challenge Stadium, off Stephenson Ave, Mt Claremont. We will again be in the No 4 car park, that is on the south side of the stadium building and at the east end of the car park.
On the same dates and times we will also have a collection team at a new venue – The eastern car park at Riverview Church in Thorogood Ave, Burswood
Our target is to get 400 bikes needed to fill Komatsu’s 40ft container by the end of August. Perth – bring out those bikes that are collecting dust in the shed – they will change lives in Africa.
Monday 18 July 2011
B4H WA’s first bike collection day was a great success collecting over 100 preloved bikes from generous Perth
community. These bikes are now destined to change a life in Namibia in the coming months.
In addition to over 100 hybrid and mountain bikes suitable for use in Africa the B4H WA team also collected about 20 kids kids bikes and some road bikes. Collection team at Challenge Stadium
Excess kids bikes are being passed on the Santa’s Workshop where they will be serviced and cleaned up for redistribution to needy kids in Perth at Christmas time. We have also identified a Perth based charity with an interest in taking the road bikes for an indigenous youth program - more of that in the future.
During the week since our first collection day we have accumulated another 30 hybrid and mountain bikes mostly through our collection partner, The Bicycle Entrepreneur (TBE) and from the Harvey Lions Club.
Our next Collection Day is this coming Saturday, July 30th from 9am to 3pm, in the car parks Swanview Aquatic Centre, off Gray Drive, Midvale, and Challenge Stadium, off Stephenson Ave, Mt Claremont.
Our target is to get the total to over 300 bikes by the end of this weekend, well on the way to the 400 needed to fill Komatsu’s 40ft container.B4H WA’s first bike collection day was a great success collecting over 100 preloved bikes from generous Perth community. These bikes are now destined to change a life in Namibia in the coming months.
In addition to over 100 hybrid and mountain bikes suitable for use in Africa the B4H WA team also collected about 20 kids kids bikes and some road bikes. Collection team at Challenge Stadium
Excess kids bikes are being passed on the Santa’s Workshop where they will be serviced and cleaned up for redistribution to needy kids in Perth at Christmas time. We have also identified a Perth based charity with an interest in taking the road bikes for an indigenous youth program - more of that in the future.
During the week since our first collection day we have accumulated another 30 hybrid and mountain bikes mostly through our collection partner, The Bicycle Entrepreneur (TBE) and from the Harvey Lions Club.
Our next Collection Day is this coming Saturday, July 30th from 9am to 3pm, in the car parks Swanview Aquatic Centre, off Gray Drive, Midvale, and
Challenge Stadium, off Stephenson Ave, Mt Claremont.
Our target is to get the total to over 300 bikes by the end of this weekend, well on the way to the 400 needed to fill
Komatsu’s 40ft container.