Most of us use bicycles for recreation, but for some a bicycle can mean survival.
A bicycle can make a difference in a person’s life. The difference between having a job or not, going to school or not, seeing a doctor or not…
Wheels4Life is a non-profit organization that provides bikes for people in developing countries who really need them. Often these people live in very primitive and remote areas with no access to public transportation. The closest school, doctor or work-place might be 10 or 20 miles away. In developing countries, children use bicycles to get to school, adults use them to get to work, and health care workers use them to access their patients. Without a bicycle, children can end up uneducated, families can be without enough income to survive, and illnesses are left untreated. Wheels4Life provides the life-altering mobility of a bicycle to make the daily necessities accessible. The gift of a bicycle can work miracles.
Wheels4Life partners with local institutions, individuals and organizations to help identify people who need a bike to be able to go to school or to work. The bicycles are often purchased in the country were they’re needed, helping the local economy and it making it much easier to find replacement parts. It also saves costs in shipping, handling, import taxes, duties, and storage. As the charity grows, bikes will be imported by the container, lowering the cost per unit even more. Administrative costs and overhead are kept as low as possible with 90 – 95 percent of the funds received going towards buying bikes. Everybody in the charity works on a volunteer level for free. Hans Rey pays for all of his charity-related travel expenses out of his own pocket. Keeping the costs down to a minimum allows Wheels4Life to buy and distribute even more bikes and to change more lives in return.
You can support Wheels4Life by participating in the dreambike program. With the help of Performance Bicycle, crankbrothers will auction off dreambikes and donate all the proceeds to Wheels4Life. Visit our dreambikes hompage to learn more and bid.
