World Bicycle Relief
World Bicycle Relief provides access to independence and livelihood through the power of bicycles. People in developing nations suffer everyday due to lack of transportation. By taking valuable time away from education and work, walking long distances exacts a toll the poor cannot afford to pay. The bicycle is a simple, sustainable and effective tool for leveraging human effort: compared to walking, a bicycle quintuples carrying capacity and quadruples the distance a person can travel. World Bicycle Relief promotes comprehensive bicycle programs to improve healthcare, education, and economic development outcomes for impoverished people. Specifically, they source sturdy, culturally appropriate bicycles for healthcare workers, students, farmers, and entrepreneurs and train and equip local bicycle mechanics.
World Bicycle Relief is a multi-year grantee.
A 2017 grant from the Cultures of Resistance Network supported World Bicycle Relief’s purchase of about thirty bicycles in Zambia. This was part of the organization’s overall goal of providing 3,200 bicycles in the country.
A 2016 grant from the Cultures of Resistance Network supported World Bicycle Relief’s Bicycles for Educational Empowerment Program (BEEP) in Malawi. Children in Malawi can spend up to four hours walking to and from school each day. Along the way, they may face assault or harassment. As a result, many children drop out at an early age. Bicycles help keep them in school, making their journeys to school shorter and, more importantly, safer. When used outside of school hours, bicycles also give families a tool to improve their businesses and increase household incomes.
A 2015 grant from the Cultures of Resistance Network supported World Bicycle Relief’s efforts to mobilize girl students in Zimbabwe and increase their access to education. In partnership with World Vision’s IGATE program and the Ministry of Education, World Bicycle Relief is carrying out at three-year program aiming to provide 75,000 bicycles to mostly girl students living in rural, hard-to-reach areas. This grant provided bicycles and related infrastructure with the intended results of increased school attendance and academic performance among the recipients.
A 2013 grant from the Cultures of Resistance Network helped World Bicycle Relief provide bicycles for students at two schools in Zimbabwe.
A 2011 grant from the Cultures of Resistance Network was used to support their Bicycles for Educational Empowerment Program (BEEP). In partnership with the Zambian Ministry of Education, World Vision, CRS, CARE International, and community-based organizations, World Bicycle Relief is carrying out this 50,000-bicycle program to improve Zambian children’s access to education. Since 2010, funding from the Cultures of Resistance Network (partially matched by World Bicycle Relief’s Board of Directors) has supplied 44 bicycles and assisted with local mechanics training.
A 2010 grant from the Cultures of Resistance Network supported the group’s general operations.
In addition to support from the Cultures of Resistance Network, director iara lee arranged an outside grant for World Bicycle Relief in 2022 to support the organization’s expansion in Zambia, Malawi & Zimbabwe, which included programs focusing on education, healthcare, conservation and other topics.
Website: www.worldbicyclerelief.org
