Abandoned College bicycles donated to local charity
Abandoned bikes left at St John’s College, University of Cambridge, are being donated to a charity that provides opportunities for disadvantaged and disabled adults. After being repaired, the bikes are shipped to Africa where they provide an invaluable resource for communities with limited access to transport.
Unwanted bicycles that have been left at St John’s College, Cambridge, are helping a local social enterprise and being sent to Africa where they help people access basic needs such as water, medical care and education.
Like a lot of people in Cambridge, many staff and members of the College use a bicycle to get around town and, with limited cycle parking facilities available, it is important that any abandoned bikes are identified and removed.
Bicycle management is a job that falls to the porters at the College who have come up with a new initiative to turn a problem into an opportunity. After exhausting all options available to trace and contact the owner of an abandoned bike, the College porters will now impound and hold it for one month before arranging for it to be collected by OWL Bikes – part of disability charity Papworth Trust.
After picking up the bikes, OWL, which is based in Sawston, Cambridge, transports them to its bicycle workshops to be repaired by disabled or disadvantaged local people who work for the charity. The serviced bicycles are then either sold to the public at a reasonable cost or passed to another organisation called Recycle Bikes to Africa who ship the bikes to areas in Africa where people have to spend many hours each day walking to collect water, firewood, or to access health care, school and employment. The bicycles save local people valuable time, lighten loads, dramatically improve access to work and education opportunities and help to bring about social change.
Head Porter at St John’s College, Steve Poppitt said: “The abandoned bikes that we find are often damaged and unusable or have been left behind by students who have since graduated. The College currently has around 50 bicycles to donate and we are really happy to be able to send bikes, that would have been headed for the dump, to a good cause where they can make a real difference to people’s lives”.
Any current staff, students or Fellows at St John’s College who have an unused bicycle that they would like to donate, please contact Steve Poppitt via: Headporter@joh.cam.ac.uk.
To find out more about OWL Bikes and Recycle Bikes to Africa visit: http://www.papworthtrust.org.uk/locations/owl-bikes-shop#group_service_tab_3