Crowdfunding to send bicycles to refugees in Calais

A community group is crowd funding a campaign to bring bikes to the refugee camps in Calais - to ease the lives of the thousands of people living and working there

Calais Bicycle Aid is making a trip to the area to bring reconditioned bikes and parts, along with a team of mechanics who will work for five days to make sure everyone’s bikes are in good working order.

he plan is to increase the number of refugees who have access to a bike, contribute to the aid work already taking place and support bike repair workshop sessions.

The organisers say: “Access to a working bicycle has a big impact on day to day life for refugees in Calais.

“Visiting the distribution centre or the government office to check on an asylum application is at least a 5 mile round trip, which on foot can easily take 2 hours.”

Through a crowdfunding website, the group is almost halfway to achieving its £800 target, and individuals can pledge the price of an individual part, like a lock or a bike repair kit, or a hostel bed for a travelling mechanic.

The group is a collective of people working in bike recycling projects in the UK including Bicycle Links in Norwich and The Bike Project in London. Among the collective are people with experience of the refugee situation in Calais and an a variety of bike fixing and recycling wisdom.

The group says that raising £800 will mean the following is possible:

    1 x long wheelbase van full of stuff will travel from Norwich to Calais to deliver the aid
    If use of a van is donated then we'll use the money allocated for this to buy additional tools and bike parts to donate
    3 x experienced bike mechanics will spend 5 days supporting bike repair sessions and the distribution centre
    At least 30 x bicycles, reconditioned by UK's bike projects, will be distributed to Calais refugees
    2 x reconditioned postal bikes (pictured below) for NGO's and volunteer teams in Calais
    Boxes of tools, bike spares and part will be donated to the bike repair workshop which supports refugees with bikes

If they exceed the target, they will increase the number of reconditioned postal bikes for NGO's and volunteer teams in Calais - or if it’s a significant amount more, they will consider a second van with an additional 60 bike donations along with an additional 3 cycle machanics, bike parts and tools.

For those who would rather donate bikes, tools, and parts, they are welcome to drop them at the following locations:

    Norwich - Bicycle Links on King Street
    London - The Bike Project
    Sheffield - ReCycle Bikes
    Oxford - Contact dan [at] kettlegun.co.uk

The trip is currently planned for Wednesday 11th to Monday 16th November 2015.

Follow the group’s progress and get updates from Calais @BicycleAid