By empowering and engaging people; Africycle is working to create sustained, responsible development in Africa.  Stimulated by the support of Canadians, Africycle’s model of development utilizes a holistic strategy to benefit communities as a collective, leveraging the greatest outcome from all resources - money, time and people.

Recognizing need and taking action, Africycle discovered that many people in Africa could not afford available forms of transportation; mini bus, taxi or least of all a private vehicle.  Therefore the alternative most people turn to is a bicycle.  Simple and cheap to operate, bicycles are an effective way to save significant amounts of time.  By providing access to appropriate, affordable bicycles; Africycle is using the bicycle as a tool for change in Africa.

Bicycles help generate income.  Many small businesses in Africa depend on a bicycle to carry goods, deliver services or even to assist people in obtaining jobs.  By providing the tools to generate income, people are able to spend more time actively working to break the cycle of poverty in their own lives.

By ‘planting’  bike shops in Africa, Africycle is planting seeds.  Each bicycle shop acts as a community driven method to provide reliable bicycles at low cost for individuals, while providing a source of income from which the community as a whole may benefit.  Income from the bicycle shop is allotted for community needs; these needs are determined by a local committee and are based on relevant, current needs of their own community.

Not only are bicycles providing income generation opportunity, they are also playing a vital role in the most important aspects of life.  Parents are earning extra income to pay school fees, children are using bicycles to go to school.  Health care volunteers use his or her bicycle to reach patients, distributing crucial medications and education in the fight against diseases like AIDS/HIV.  Families use bicycles to collect firewood for heat and cooking.  Bicycles are also used to transport life saving clean water.  The impact of a bicycle is incredibly far-reaching in the lives of people challenged by the circumstances of extreme poverty.

Our opportunity has been to meet these needs for bicycles, by collecting unwanted used bicycles in Canada and shipping them to Africa where they are refurbished and sold.   Africycle has created employment for 8 Malawian employees and has transported over 2000 bicycles to date.  The Malawi shop is the first of many in this community based model.  Recognizing the life changing effect a bicycle has, Africycle established ‘Grace Shop’ in Zomba, Malawi (Africa); as an income generating tool to provide resources to Grace Orphan care, a support group for children who are orphaned and/or disabled by AIDS/HIV.  The change in that group alone has been miraculous.  With only 20 children and no permanent meeting place just 5 years ago, a permanent facility has been built and a small staff recruited to provide daily education, food and skills-based programs for more than 200 children from 5 surrounding villages!