A good friend of mine started a facebook event for his ride for Africycle journey, and when i read about it, it really got me interested. For a long time now ive wanted to do something alon the lines of sponsoring someone who is less fortunate than me but unfortunatelly my finanical situation has been pretty sketchy over the past few years. And I also huge into biking and ride everyday, and was thinking of doing some kind of big ride in the near future, So this would be a perfect fit for me!

I was wondering if you could email me some information on how I can get on as one of the riders, do you have to mail me a package? or do I have to raise a certain ammout of money first? I am extremely interested so if you could please get back to me sometime soon that would be greatly appreciated.

While yes, there are bicycles available and perhaps the way it reads in that first paragraph misleads what we mean by ‘improve access to bicycles’ the situation Africycle addresses is a bit more indepth. What we do, is to provide access to high quality, low cost bicycles that will outlast and outwork just about any bikes coming from India or China. With the pricing structure that Africycle uses in Malawi, bicycles are more financially accessible AND the bikes we send are far better in terms of durability (because of the types of gear/brake systems, build materials, etc) and are much more suitable for the rigor of daily use in an environment like Malawi. The bikes being imported from India or China are from what we’ve seen time and time again, very old technology (rod and pivot brake systems for example) that break easily, especially in heavy use. So, to sum it up, we’re providing access to bicycles that are better quality, will last longer and are less expensive for Malawians to buy.

Now, add to that that we are creating jobs through the shop in Malawi for Malawians (as opposed to people coming from other countries and setting up shops) and the profits STAY in Malawi where other shops from our experience are sending money back to their home countries where that economy benefits from the sales. The profits Africycle earns are used to sponsor community development projects (as you read on our site) like Grace Orphan Care.

Another important thing to note, is that while yes, shipping is a large cost…we’ve found ways to reduce our costs pretty dramatically and have developed pretty efficient packing methods so that we’re optimizing every dollar invested in shipping, ultimately lowering the cost per bike to get them to Malawi.

So to answer your final question…Africycle is using its resources to help build the Malawian economy, by creating economic opportunity for Malawians and to help support social programs that assist those people in Malawi who need it with resources earned through value-added services being performed by Malawians. It is vital to have organizations helping Africans to gain opportunities for better education, clean water,etc. That being said we also believe that capacity building is vital to helping to rise above the economic constraints that systemically keep communities stuck in the cycle of poverty. In our view, one of the best ways to help break the cycle of poverty is to provide training, resources and opportunity for those people who desire change. This is just one of the ways we feel we can help do that.