Bicycles for Humanity

As I considered charities to include in A Year of Centuries, I wanted to include one that deals with bicycles.  That’s because bicycles have been such an important part of my life, allowing me to see so many wonderful places close-up, have fun with my husband, make a lot of good friends, and stretch myself through competition.  Also, having a bicycle charity seems to be a rather direct way to make a positive out of the negative from my crash.

I Googled bicycle charities and decided almost immediately that I wanted to work with one that provides bicycles to people who need them for transportation.  A bicycle – something that is primarily an instrument of fun for me – can provide a huge improvement in quality of life to someone in a developing country.  I tried to check out a few of these charities through Charity Navigator and a few other groups that rate charities.  However, there are literally thousands of charities out there, and these cycling charities generally are too small to be on the radar screens of charity watchdogs.  Next, I started asking some of my cycling friends if they could recommend any bicycle charities, but no one had any connections.

At last I found Bicycles for Humanity (B4H) – thanks to Twitter!  I’m not on Twitter myself, but my husband is.  He follows professional cycling announcer Paul Sherwen, who tweeted about B4H one day.  B4H works in several African countries, including Uganda, which is Paul’s native country.  I’m not one to go for a product just because of a celebrity endorsement, but in this case Paul Sherwen provided the vetting I was looking for.  B4H collects unwanted yet still usable bicycles, primarily in the United States, and ships them to people who can really use them in other countries.  The bicycles are delivered in 40-foot shipping containers that become Bicycle Empowerment Centers.  People ride the bicycles to collect water, go to school or work, or deliver goods to market.  Bicycles greatly reduce the time that people would need to walk to these places, and they allow people to carry much more weight.  In addition, local people are trained in mechanics and business so that they can use the shipping containers as local bike shops, improving the local economy.  Not to mention, the bicycles get new life rather than being dumped in a landfill here in the U.S.

B4H operates at the grassroots level through local chapters, like the one in Atlanta.  I contacted Mary Fortson Harwell with B4H Georgia, and she enthusiastically welcomed my support through A Year of Centuries.  B4H Georgia will be shipping a container of bicycles to Namibia, Africa in May, and so now is a perfect time to make a donation to help make this happen.  You can do so by visiting www.b4hgeorgia.org.  Thank you for your help!