Isle of Wight bikes set sail for new life in Africa
25th July 2018
An Island charity that collects unwanted bikes and sends them to Africa has received a helping hand from Wightlink.
Re-Cycle Isle of Wight provides bicycles to communities in Africa. They offer people a route out of poverty through work or education by providing cheap and sustainable transport.
For the past eight years, Wightlink has supported the charity by providing cross-Solent travel for a lorry to deliver the bikes to the charity’s national headquarters in Colchester, where they are sorted and refurbished.
To date, more than 1,200 bikes from the Isle of Wight have been sent to Africa via the charity. It’s not only the African communities that benefit from the charity’s work, Re-Cycle also supports people in the UK to learn about cycle maintenance.
Wightlink’s Head of Port Operations Dean Murphy has visited the Island branch of the charity at its base at InnerSpaces in Cowes. He helped load the latest batch of around 120 bikes into the lorry donated by Newchurch-based service station, Bartletts, ahead of a 04:00 sailing from Fishbourne on Tuesday 24 July.
Sue Bailey of Re-Cycle Isle of Wight says: “We are really grateful to Wightlink, Bartletts and InnerSpaces for their continued generosity as it means we can send even more bikes to people in Africa who need them.”
Dean Murphy adds: “We have been helping Re-Cycle Isle of Wight to transport bikes off the Island for several years. We are delighted to continue our support as we recognise the importance of the charity’s work in providing sustainable transport for people in remote communities in Africa.”
The Re-Cycle Isle of Wight team is always happy to accept donations from Islanders and receives approximately seven bikes per week. For details on how to get involved, please visit http://www.re-cycle.org/donate/bike/recycle-isle-wight.
Picture caption: Wightlink’s Dean Murphy (in hi-viz) helps the team from Re-Cycle Isle of Wight load bikes for Africa.
For more details, contact Karen Woods 07775 694266 [email protected]