400 Canadian Bicycles to Help Poor in Nicaragua
Apr 22nd, 2009 by Jon Posted in Nicaragua News | 1 Comment
As if to commemorate Earth Day, World Community Bikes has packed 400 donated bicycles into a shipping container and is now heading down to Jinotepe, a town south-east of Managua. The bicycles are part of a program started by World Community Developments who is partnered with a non-profit organization in Nicaragua.
The bikes will be sold at an affordable price to locals. Not only will locals gain independence from paying for taxis and buses, the profits from the sale of bicycles will help children in Jinotepe.
A stack of bicycles donated to World Community Canada awaits packing.
Verbo Ministries in Managua has a similar bicycle program that has been very successful. They have been teaching poor and at-risk youth valuable skills while giving them empowerment and self-worth. In Bluefields, there isn’t such a program and we hope Verbo’s success in Managua can be duplicated there.
World Community Canada volunteers stack bicycles into a shipping container.
With severe poverty and 85% unemployment, many people in Bluefields can not afford to take the bus or taxi even though it costs 3 cordoba for a bus (15 cents USD) and 20 cordoba for a taxi ($1 USD). Despite the economic situation, we have seen very little bicycle use in Bluefields during the past 4 years. It would seem that locals are either unaccustomed to riding bicycles, can not buy one cheaply, or that bicycles do not last long on the rough roads.
At Cornerstone, we recently have been having discussions about sending bicycles down to Bluefields. This would help Verbo in Bluefields kick-start a bicycle program which will benefit many needy families living there. If this is something you would like to help in, please drop us a line! We’re looking to connect with like-minded individuals and organizations.
You can find out more about World Community Bikes at:
- World Community
- World Community’s Bicycle program
- Bicycle Recycle - World Community’s Bicycle Program Blog
April 26th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Awesome! I am glad you are sharing this info as I have been interested in getting access to some bikes for our rural communities so the kids can go to secondary school which is a very long ways away.