Sunday April 2, 2006
Putting a human face on generosity
You\’ve made a donation to some overseas project. You know it will be used for a worthwhile cause – well drilling, house building, schools, orphanages, health clinics, tree planting…
But it feels so distant, so impersonal. You have no way of knowing whether your dollars will feed a starving baby or pay for a hotel room at the Nairobi Hilton. In fact, by the time your dollars have slid through half a dozen banks in half a dozen countries, your donation is now totally anonymous and untraceable.
That\’s the genius behind Bicycles for Humanity. The same saddle that once supported your butt when you pedalled to the drug store for fresh deodorant now carries an AIDS worker in Namibia delivering a life-preserving cocktail of medications.
“It puts a human face on generosity,” says Pat Montani, founder of Bicycles for Humanity. “Everyone has a bike. But it\’s down in the basement. There\’s a personal identification with that bike. People can connect with another part of the world and give something that\’s valuable. It\’s part of them, part of their lives, and it\’s now helping someone else.”
A matter of efficiency
Montani, a 56-year-old entrepreneur who has developed five technology companies, got into shipping bicycles by accident. He and his wife Brenda are mountain bikers. Brenda saw some pictures of poor kids in a Mexican village, and wanted to give them some bicycles so they could have something to ride.
The two of them filled a trailer with bikes that had been gathering dust in friends\’ garages. They towed the trailer to southern California for a holiday.
But when they tried to take the load across the border, Montani got a quick lesson in international economics. Under the NAFTA agreement, they could import bicycles for sale. But they couldn\’t take them across to give away.
So they found a local church group willing to ride 40 bikes across, personally. On the Mexican side, they reloaded the trailer and completed the delivery.
That\’s the kind of red-tape-cutting that Pat Montani loves doing. When people kept giving him used bicycles, he started checking to see where they might be really needed. The Internet led him to Namibia and Michael Linke. Linke explained that AIDS workers had to walk from house to house – in rural areas, often miles apart. With bikes, they could travel farther, faster.
Most pictures of Africa show the Rift Valley, Mount Kilmanjaro, or perhaps the mountain gorilla habitats of Rwanda. In fact, most of Africa resembles a wobbly billiard table. A bicycle will go amazing distances with minimal effort.
I once read that the most efficient muscle-powered natural transport is the Andean condor, soaring. But a human on a bicycle, on a level road, surpasses the condor\’s efficiency.
Anyone who has travelled to Africa, India, or Asia will know how creative local people can be with sturdy bicycle frames. Bicycles become makeshift taxis, pickup trucks, and SUVs. It\’s not unusual in Ethiopia to see an ancient single-speed bicycle tottering along under a mountain of firewood or haybales. One bike often carries an entire family.
Uncoordinated efforts
When Montani started checking around, he found dozens of organizations shipping bikes. Some, like Bikes Not Bombs, had been doing it for 20 years. About 200 Rotary clubs, in various parts of the world, were shipping bicycles.
But none of these groups knew about the others. They all thought theirs were individual initiatives. No one had coordinated their activities.
All of these people were enthusiasts, grass roots organizations, mechanics and riders, Montani explains. “Bicycles for Humanity is becoming a kind of umbrella marketing organization. I thought, there has to be a way to scale this. Distribution is everything.”
This year, containers of bicycles will go to South Africa and Ghana. To Namibia for AIDS workers. To Ethiopia for malaria workers. To Uganda, for refugee groups. To Mozambique for women\’s work.
An international shipping container holds 450 to 500 bicycles. Bicycles for Humanity doesn\’t repair them here – it\’s cheaper and more efficient to do the repairs right there, in the poorer countries. “All we do is take off the pedals and turn the handlebars,” says Montani. “Then we stack them in.”
Most bicycles are given away. A few are sold. “Some people feel bad about that,” admits Montani. “It feels wrong for someone else to profit from selling something they gave away.
“But there\’s another side of it,” he continues. “You\’re helping someone start up a business. Then there\’s people who provide services and repairs. It generates a whole new economy.”
Currently, he\’s trying to work deals with some of the shipping giants. “They take containers out empty,” he says, “and bring them back loaded. Why couldn\’t they fill some of those empty containers with our bikes?”
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It\’s also worth pursuing Richard Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
Working through Rotary clubs gives his program distinct benefits, he says. “It gives us local people right on the ground. You have no idea what an asset it is to have a knowledge base right there. Most of these are business people, so they have some competence. And they\’re Rotary, so you know they believe in the same values that you do.
“And we also have Rotary people who are visiting those clubs. When you spend a week with someone, you can soon tell if he\’s snowing you.”
So far, Rotary clubs in Vernon, Chase, Peachland, Wenatchee, Summerland, Osooyoos and Merritt have collected bicycles. Kelowna\’s collection will be next weekend.
“It\’s a grassroots thing,” Montani says, over and over. “That\’s what makes it fly. Everyone wants to get in and do something to help.
“If this had gone the Corporate America route, they\’d have to pay people to do this, and it would lose all the passion that people are putting into it.”
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Copyright © 2006 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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