Related Organizations

Bicycles for Humanity

www.bicycles-for-humanity.org

Bicycles for Humanity is a new, informal umbrella association of bicycle collection and distribution organizations across the globe.  Current “members” include Bikes for the World, Arlington VA; Village Bicycle Project, Moscow, Idaho; Bicycle Empowerment Network Namibia (BEN-Namibia), Windhoek, Namibia; and Re~Cycle, Oxford, England.  The objective of Bicycles for Humanity is to increase the benefits to poor people in developing countries through scaling up the collection of bicycles from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other Western nations, and distribution in Africa, Latin America, and other developing regions where bicycle transport is appropriate. 

Village Bike Project 

www.pcei.org/vbp

Collects bicycles for distribution in West Africa, providing training and technical assistance in bicycle mechanics and maintenance to mechanics and users.  Focus on improving tool use. 

Bicycle Empowerment Network-Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia, www.benbikes.org.za/namibia

Founded in 2005,  BEN-Namibia reconditions and distributes bicycles from support groups in the United Kingdom and North America to local micro entrepreneurs, health workers, students and teachers. 

Working Bikes Cooperative (www.workingbikes.org) , Chicago Illinois USA

Founded in 2001, WBC collects bicycles in the Chicago area and donates them overseas.  WBC’s methodology differs slightly from most other collecting organizations in that it repairs and sells road bikes in the Chicago area, using the proceeds to pay a mechanic and the expenses of the international shipment of mountain and BMX bikes. 

Bikes Not Bombs

www.bikesnotbombs.org,  Roxbury, Massachusetts USA

Bikes Not Bombs is a non-profit organization working for alternative transportation and community development locally as well as internationally. The group operates the Bicycle Recycling and Youth Training Center in Roxbury MA, to promote environmental education, meaningful employment, and safe sustainable communities, both in the Boston area and abroad.

Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (www.itdp.org)

Research and advocacy organization promoting environmentally and economically sustainable transport worldwide, with a focus on the poor.  Founded 1984.

Pedals for Progress

www.p4p.org

Collects used bicycles in the New York metropolitan and New England regions, for donation overseas.  Founded 1991.

Re~Cycle

www.re-cycle.org

Collects unwanted bicycles in England, for shipment overseas (primarily to Africa).  Founded 2000.

Cycle North South

www.cyclonordsud.org

Collects unwanted bicycles in Montreal, Canada, for shipment overseas.

Other Interesting Web Pages

The End of Poverty
(a book by Jeffrey Sachs)

"Extreme poverty can be ended, not in the time of our grandchildren, but our time." Thus forecasts Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, whose twenty-five years of experience observing the world from many vantage points has helped him shed light on the most vital issues facing our planet: the causes of poverty, the role of rich-country policies, and the very real possibilities for a poverty-free future. Deemed "the most important economist in the world" by The New York Times Magazine and "the world's best-known economist" by Time magazine, Sachs brings his considerable expertise to bear in the landmark The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, his highly anticipated blueprint for world-wide economic success — a goal, he argues, we can reach in a mere twenty years.