Creating change, one bicycle at a time

"The quality of our life will be determined by the quality of your contributions. When you work to improve the lives of others, your life improves automatically." - Kurek Ashley,

Each and everyone of us, have the power to create change. I am inspired and motivated by individuals, businesses, or groups whose contribution to community, and different perspectives on life have expanded, and challenged my thinking. I want to amplify and illustrate the power in stories, creating change, and making a positive impact on lives of others.

You can listen to the entire conversation on the podcast - A Story of Opportunity and Contribution One Bicycle at a Time HERE , and/ or read a summary o the conversation below.

I first met Andy Gild, co-founder and CEO of a grassroots charity, Bicycles for Humanity when she attended a YTM Business Networking Event that I ran. She was attending, for her business, On The Move Coaching.

As often happens, an unexpected conversation led to a powerful outcome.

It was at the YTM Awards in 2018, where Andy Gild and Andrew Wilson, a business development manager for a solar energy company, competed while speaking to the topic “Why does it matter”. Andy spoke about her involvement with Bicycles or Humanity, and Andrew’s spoke about solar energy. Mutual interest was sparked and has resulted in a contribution to a community in Namibia, Africa, in 2020.

Bicycles for Humanity
Bicycles for Humanity is a simple grassroots organization. The simplicity is in what they do, which is to is collect secondhand bikes, or preloved bikes and pop them in a shipping container, and send them mostly to Africa. Not only does the bicycle itself have a huge impact on the recipient's life, and their communities, and family, the container that the bike is sent in, turns into a workshop and that creates ongoing employment, activities, and opportunities.

The benefits are so much more than just sending the bikes, and of course, there's benefit to the volunteers as well on this side, which is another whole story.


Capacity to contribute

Andy Gild realised when she was turning 40, how grateful she was for the things that she had achieved in her life, and that she had capacity to give back. She was working part time, kids were at school, and she read something about bikes going into Africa. Originally from South Africa, she had a very soft spot for African communities. So, started Googling around what would be if there was anything going on in Melbourne at the time.

She came across the organization called Bicycles for Humanity. They weren't doing anything in Melbourne yet, a very new organization that was headed up by a guy out of Canada, Pat Montani. Pat had connected, with a guy in Namibia called Michael Linke who's originally from Victoria.

Andy met Matt McCulloch who was a friend of Michael's for a coffee, they sat down and he was the absolutely most positive guy she had ever met. So they decided to give it a go.


A great initiative
Andrew Wilson thought it was a great initiative, a when he heard the story at the YTM event in 2018, and how simple things like bicycles can make such a difference to a community. It’s that sort of thing in our world, often taken for granted, that people discard used bikes. They're worth nothing at all. During , Andy and Andrew’s conversation, it came out that the next step from a basic bicycle was to have electric bikes being used for things like ambulances, and taxis and, that actually creates a whole series of economic benefits to the local community. That's where, the conversation started.

They were looking for potential ways of being able recharge these electric bikes, and certainly solar panels in Africa are a great mix, and great way to be able to do that. Particularly, in remote locations, and that turned out to be great opportunity for us.

Andrew shared with me that ” In our business we do service of existing customers, solar systems, and sometimes some of the panels can't be reused. So, we have a excess of panels, which they're still working, but can't be really re-installed, and on a premises. So, that stock sits around, and at the time Andy was looking for some solar panels. We had some and I said, I can certainly help you in providing what you need."

The conversation continued online with the counterparts in Africa. And, Andrew talked to his warehouse manager, to see what was available, and came to a arrangement on panels they could provide.


Andy Gild shares that “ When I heard Andrew talk initially, and the light bulb went off and thought, "Oh, there's synergy here." And, then it actually comes to fruition, and I saw that Andrew was having contact with an organization in Namibia, SunCycles, who's doing amazing, amazing work with solar powered cycling. So, yeah it was just really so wonderful, and Andrew's generosity, and support has been fabulous.



The process of getting the solar panels to Namibia

Andrew worked out what panels were available and sent the information across to the counterpart in Namibia to see what they needed in terms of charging capability, and battery storage. The next step involved the warehouse manager putting them aside, and boxing them up. And, then he was able to deliver them down to Andy, and really Bicycles of Humanity did the rest by packing them carefully in the shipping container, and sending them to Africa.

The challenges
Bicycles for Humanity have a very good system in place. They have some fabulous volunteers to take care of all the logistics side of things. So, as Andrew said, it's really was a matter of just packing them carefully, and ensuring they took up as little space as possible so that we could get as many bikes in the container as well, and other bits and pieces.

Then we have to ensure that the documentation is above board, and pay any excess taxes etc. Shipping to Namibia is a relatively straightforward process when you know what you're doing. And, they have people who do know.

What next…

A few of the panels are in the process of being installed in a container that been supported by donations when the co-founder, Matt McCulloch, passed away. Donations were made to Bicycles for Humanity, and Good Cycles and, those funds have finally been put to supporting a wonderful guy called Lucky, who is setting up a new workshop in honor of Matt. The panels from Andrew will be supporting a couple of solar powered e-bikes that through generous raffled donations from our community have been incorporated into this workshop.


What sort of bikes do you send over, Andy?
”Essentially, what we're looking for is adult bikes, mainly. We get plenty kid's, so we don't need more kid's, but adult bikes, hybrids, thicker wheeled. BMXs is a good, actually, we're happy to take BMXs. But, a bike that a person would be happy to ride again, or easily fixable. Yeah, we appreciate people donating, but we don't really want to be a tip for just really not usable. If a bike is good enough to have a little service, which happens in Africa, so the communities are trained there in both business, and mechanical skills to do this work. .. so steady hybrids adults, mainly. But, having said that, Kerryn, if people do donate other bikes, we've got avenues and partners here that we support as well through on selling some of those bikes into the community. And, those funds go back to supporting our work, so actually, any good quality adult bike. “

How could people help Bicycles for Humanity?
”There's been a lot of work done by our wonderful volunteers, our committee in the background. Setting up our processes, and we've been calling this period active hibernation. ..there's the bike aspect, of course, we're a not-for-profit, and a hundred percent volunteers. So, always looking for financial support, but even more important, we're looking to partner with organizations that really want to perhaps support particular shops in Namibia. And, perhaps develop a rapport, and a specific dialogue, and a relationship with those in country which would be amazing. And, then of course, we're always looking for volunteers, skilled volunteers. We're looking at the moment, so please follow us on social media, or LinkedIn, go to our website.

Let's make our conversations count so we can better connect, contribute, and build community. If you want to find genuine access points to team up with your ideal client, or strategic allies, perhaps I can help. Please contact me via my website, www.kerrynpowell.com.au.