A Champion of Humanity
Not until I worked at Trek did I get to know an incredibly nice bunch of people at a company called Sram. Sram is out of Chicago and they make parts for bikes, with a speciality in componentry for mountain and road bikes.
F.K.Day was Vice President of Sram and in that role he co-founded an organization called “World Bicycle Relief.” WBR is now his full time vocation.
WBR got started in response to the 2005 tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean. Sram and Trek Bicycle partnered with World Vision Sri Lanka to provide 24,000 locally produced bicycles to people in extreme need. The result of this simple gesture was an accelerated recovery for the region. Where cars could not go because the roads were destroyed, people could use bicycles to restart their businesses. Sram kept WBR an independent agency to monitor results and the results –2 years after the disaster–were incredible:
- 88% of recipients depended on bicycles for livelihood activities
- Bicycles can save a household up to 30% of its annual income for transportation costs
- The bicycle program enabled households to resume livelihood, education and service activities
The program was so successful that WBR turned its sights to another area in need, Zambia. The goal is to get 23,000 bikes to this nation that is reeling from aids. The bikes will take aids workers into remote villages with necessary medicine and education.
Without the bikes, healthcare information would not reach these people. Simply put, World Bicycle Relief works. For about $134 a person can “buy” a bike that will get shipped to Zambia. WBR works to document the impact of the bikes which in turn can impact other areas.
A bicycle: a simple solution to complex problems. Bravo, F.K. and to all of Sram and the WBR team. Thanks for the inspiration and showing that tough problems can be handled effectively with good team work and a great vision.
You can find stories and wonderful photos of the program here: www.worldbicyclerelief.org.
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Keith Oberg Says:
My hat is off to F.K. Day and World Bicycle Relief. Tapping the know-how and professionalism of the bike industry is key to overcoming the poverty and failure of the market, or natural disasters such as the 2004 tsunami, to deliver large numbers of bicycles to low-income areas of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
WBR is not alone in envisioning the ability of the bicycle to empower large numbers of the poor. A growing community of such entities and networks exist. Some deliver new bikes, others good-quality used bikes. Rather than competing, how can they cooperate to build a critical mass of bikes and raise the profile of bicycles as productive transportation? Is there, for example, a way to raise the quality and professionalism of used bicycle delivery, while retaining its overwhelming price advantage? When I see that it costs $134/bike through World Bicycle Relief, and under $30/bike to Africa for broad-based grassroots programs like Bikes for the World, Village Bicycle Project, and others, I can’t help but think that combining the best of both–and involving more people (bike retailers, cyclists, the general public) here in the United States–would generate more support for both–and make a lot of sense.
-ko