As an avid adventurer, Chris Wille has travelled the world by bicycle.
It was on a ride across Africa where Wille was first introduced to Bicycles for Humanity, a multinational organization that takes donated mountain bikes and ships them to communities in Africa.
“We simply collect good used bikes in Victoria and once we have 450 we ship them off and load them into a 40-foot container and ship them off to Africa,” says Wille.
“Each bike makes a massive difference in people’s lives over there, they repair them and ship them out into the local communities and sell them.”
Since 2008 the Victoria chapter of Bicycles for Humanity has sent 12 shipping containers full of bikes to Africa thanks to the support of the island cycling community.
“It’s been fantastic, the simple relationships with different bike shops in town and the relationships we built they just keep the thing going,” says Wille.
“Every year I wonder if it’s going to be the last container load and we get an influx of bike donations and people wanting to help out.”
This year Bicycles for Humanity Victoria has already gathered over 300 bikes, but there’s still room for more in their shipping container.
“We slowly collect bikes over the year to get up to that 300 mark and usually around the spring time right around this time we start to try and ramp things up,” says Wille.
“If we get more than required for this container we’ll just start the next one, so it’s a perpetual thing that goes on year after year.”
It’s a great way to get rid of any old bike taking up storage space.
“Every year there’s just so many good used steel mountain bikes or steel road bikes in people’s garages that they’re just not sure what to do with,” says Wille.
“Those are the robust bikes that they need in Africa.”
If you have a bike to donate, you can drop it off at 847 Royal Oak Ave.
Cole Sorenson
