BIG INTERVIEW
CHANGING LIVES
Re-Cycle director Charlotte Ward highlights the charity’s efforts to transform lives by repurposing bikes from the UK and sending them to rural communities in Africa
R
e-Cycle is dedicated to transforming lives through the power of bicycles. For more than 25 years, the charity has been on a
mission to change lives, one bike at a time, collecting unwanted bikes from across the UK, saving them from landfill and giving them a new lease of life. “We sent our first container of bikes in 1998, and since then, we’ve sent over 148,000 bikes to our partners, which is a great achievement for a small charity,” explains Charlotte Ward, the charity’s director. “We rely really heavily on our volunteers. We’ve got a great
team that supports us every day with the work that we do. So we’re very grateful for that. “Last year, we sent 21 containers, which was 11,250 bikes. This year we’re on track to send 23 containers with more than 12,000 bikes.” These bikes are delivered to Re-Cycle’s five partners across Africa with the charity’s work making a difference to lives in The Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Zambia and South Africa.
18 | September 2024 Cycle to School in Ghana
“We rely solely on bike donations from generous members of the public,” adds Ward when explaining the first steps in the process of getting much-needed bikes to remote areas of the world.
“So if someone has a bike that they don’t know what to do with and they know about Re-cycle, they’ll go on our website, put their postcode into our search engine and it will bring up their nearest drop off point. “We have a number of different drop off points across the UK and a great partnership with Halfords who support us hugely with their network of stores.” Once received, Re-Cycle will assess the bike to ensure that it is good quality, but also that it is suitable for the terrain. “We are very proud of the fact that we send good quality
bikes to our partners so we have a very thorough checking process,” says Ward. “We don’t want to be sending bikes that haven’t got at least another five to 10 years of life in them. “If it’s a bike that maybe is unsuitable for Africa, like certain
www.bikebiz.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
