Bikes for the World donates bicycles and related material in commercial quantities--by the 40' shipping container--to selected non-profit agencies in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and just about anywhere they are needed and delivery is feasible.  These bicycles provide affordable transport to individuals for use in getting to work and school, or to in providing health and education services to low-income rural people.

Over its first five years (January 2005-December 2009), Bikes for the World has channeled more than 40,000 bicycles to 15 non-profit community development organizations in 11 countries, including the United States (the latter in the Washington DC area only).  In 2007, BfW opened a subsidiary program--the Rockville Youth Bicycle Project--serving local youth in Montgomery County MD.  In 2007, Bikes for the World also became the largest bicycle reuse program in the country, donating more than 7,900 bicycles over the year, shipping another 10,300 bikes in 2008, and shipping 8,951 bikes in 2009.  

Partnerships over the last five years include:

• Asociacion Panamena de Industrias de Buena Voluntad (Goodwill Panama) -- BfW supplies this flagship affiliate of Goodwill International with bicycles, supplemented by portable sewing machiens and (most recently) wheelchairs, canes, and critches, for the support of individuals with disabilities and the general populace.  Bicycles are reconditioned in a workshop operated by Goodwill, whose employees--managers, mechanics, and sales agents--are individuals withd disabilities, providng this disadvantaged sector with income and providing the general populace with affordable transport.  The project is fully self-financing and represents Bikes for the World's largest partnership to date, with more than 10,000 bikes donated over five years. Proeeds have covered all shipping costs and generated funds for the establishment and operation of a tailoring training project utilizing sewing machines donated by Bikes for the World.     
• The Bicycling Empowerment Network Namibia  (www.benbikes.org.za/namibia) -- provides transport to health workers addressing the growing problem of AIDS in this southern African nation, as well as to micro entrepreneurs and teachers. For a brochure with more information about BEN of Namibia click here (Adobe Acrobat reader required)
  
• Sri Lanka Association of Greater Washington (www.slagw.org)  – Sri Lanka post-tsunami economic reactivation working ecumenically with local Catholic, Muslim, and Buddhist networks (three shipments totaling 1,359 bicycles over the course of 2005, including a container of 400 bicycles from the Chicago area in cooperation with Working Bikes Cooperative and the Brunswick Corporation).
  
• Servicios Ecuménicos de Formación de Centro América (SEFCA) – Guatemala urban microenterprise development focusing on youth (2005-2007), leading to the foundation of EcoBici, a community-owned bike shop.  
• Fundación Integral Campesina de Costa Rica (FINCA Costa Rica) (www.fic.or.cr)  – Costa Rican rural micro enterprise development (six shipments totaling more than 2,500 bikes over 2005-2007) benefiting micro businesspeople, primarily in rural areas of the country – see beneficiary profile elsewhere on this website of Marco Vinicio, urban street peddler.
  
• Women Prisoners Support Organisation (WPSO) (www.wpsouganda.org) -- an initial shipment of 469 bicycles in late 2007 provides affordable transport to women upon their release from the penal system, enabling them to begin earning income and--it is hoped--avoid falling back into criminal ways. Three additional shipments were made in 2008 and early 2009.
• Village Bicycle Project – West African microenterprise development. VBF (www.pcei.org/vbp) provides training, tools, and bikes, principally in Ghana, for rural development, with a particular focus on supporting community development programs and the small-scale private sector.  Over the last three years, Bikes for the World has delivered more than 3,000 bicycles to VBP, and the number is growing.  Managed by a former Peace Corps volunteer, VBP is assisting Bikes for the World on the implementation of a pilot transportation component for an education project in Senegal (see below). 
• Pinelands Creative Workshop – community development program providing area youth with micro enterprise credit, skills training, and performing arts opportunities (more than 2,500 bicycles delivered 2005-2007).
• Christian Action for International Development(CAID) (www.caidinc.org) – community development program working in the north coast community of Ft. Liberté, Haiti to raise local standards of living through the low-cost sale of consumer and production items, and provision of skills training.
  
• Art for Humanity (www.artforhumanity.org ) – more than 400 bicycles for microenterprise and small farm development in Honduras over the course of 2005-2009.
  

Bikes for the World also donated bicycles in small numbers in the United States.  Recipients included:

• Phoenix Youth Bike Shop, Arlington VA (www.phoenixbikes.org) – 80+ bicycles for reconditioing and sale through Phoenix Bikes providing vocational and mechanical training for teens and affordable bicycles and repairs to the community.
  
• The father of a US soldier wounded in Iraq, receiving rehabilitation at Washington DC’s Walter Reed Hospital—the father needed local transportation and a recreational outlet while providing care for his son.
  
• A Hurricane Katrina evacuee newly resident in Washington DC, who needed transportation to work.

Previously, under sponsorship of a New Jersey-based non-profit, the network comprising Bikes for the World collected and shipped more than 28,000 bikes over the period 1995-2004, to organizations in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Barbados, Eritrea, Ghana, South Africa, and Uganda.

Together, the number of bikes collected and donated from the lower mid-Atlantic region -- from North Carolina to suburban Philadelphia but concentrated in the Baltimore-Washington area -- comes to more than 68,000 over the period 1995-2009.   Each bicycle shipped represents a ticket to work, school, or health services for a low-income individual--who benefits in proprtion to hirs or her own efforts pedaling that bike.  In addition, the reconditioning and sale or distribution of each bike provides employment and training to a low-income person. 

Finally, the donation of a container of approximately 450 bicycles, plus parts, provides capital and experience to the receiving organization, helping to expand its mission and strengthen it over the long term.

During 2010, Bikes for the World expects to ship to several new projects in Africa and Latin America, beginning with El Salvador and Liberia.  A long-delayed project in Senegal, in conjunction with the Academy for Educational Development and funded by the US Government, is awaiting final approval from the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Senegal. On a pilot basis, Bikes for the World would supply bicycles to students, in a bid to slow drop-out rates at the secondary school level, especially among girls.  Additional projects in countries coming out of a decade of political instability and civil war -- Sudan (southern region), Sierra Leone, and the Ivory Coast -- are also on the horizon, as are projects in Sao Tome, South Africa and Morocco.