Bikes for the World is teaming up with the Tangier Trippers project and the 212 Society to raise funds to ship an initial 450 bicycles to Darna, a nonprofit serving former street children and women at risk in Tangier, Morocco (Darna means "our house" in Arabic).  The goal of the project is to put homeless children in Morocco on a positive path, via the repair and use of the bicycle.

Bikes shipped to Darna will be incorporated into an existing vocational education program serving children in need, providing the raw material for an expanded program in bike repair.  Those mastering bike mechanic skills will be employed in Darna's own workshop,  providing bikes to the Darna community, or in independnet bicycle sales & service businesses.

Our goal is to make an innitial shipment before the end of 2008.   

Donations for this project can be made online here , or via mail to Bikes for the World, 3108 17th Street North, Arlingotn VA 22201. 

Bikes for the World (BfW) is a sponsored project of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (tax ID #237305477) whose mission is to collect valuable but unwanted bicycles and related material--parts, tools, and accessories--in the United States and deliver it at low cost to community development programs assisting the poor in developing countries.   The bikes donated to our partner organizations provide much-needed and affordable transportation to laborers, micro businesspeople, farmers, health workers, and students.  Recipients benefit in proportion to THEIR efforts.  Our non-profit partner organizations sell bikes at a below-market price or distribute them to targeted beneficiaries in exchange for volunteer services (e.g., health workers in Namibia) or as award (e.g., for scholarship students living miles away from school, as in the Gambia or Senegal).  

As much as possible, Bikes for the World uses the donated bicycles to help set-up self-sustaining bicycle repair operations which can make enough money to pay the direct costs for subsequent container shipments of donated bicycles.

Bikes for the World also operates the Rockville Youth Bicycle Project in suburban Maryland, offering local youth opportunities to learn about bicycles, fulfill high school community service requirements, earn a reconditioned bicycle, and bike safely and enjoyably.

(Right: Picture from Nyariga, Ghana showing a recipient of a Bikes for the World bicycle. Courtesy of the Shape Lives Foundation)