Bikes for Refugees 2.33

What is Bikes 4 Refugees?
It's a new multi-stakeholder project in Örebro that recycles and refurbishes old bikes, for use by the nyanlända (refugee) community.

What's the plan?
We are setting up a bike workshop at the Båtshagen accommodation centre near Frövi and will use this as a base to fix old bikes, sourced from housing associations, the police and the public. The nyanlända will be involved in refurbishing the bikes and in the operation of the workshop.

Why?
Lots of reasons! The Båtshagen centre is 6km from Frövi and currently the people living there have to walk (or get a lift from the staff) just to go to a shop. So, on a practical basis, providing bikes will give the nyanlända the personal freedom to go where they want, when they want. We hope that this increased independence will improve their daily lives and allow them to more easily integrate into the local community.
Nyanlända cannot work until their applications have been processed, meaning boredom is real problem. The workshop will provide an opportunity to do something productive.
We believe that increasing the number of people who cycle is an important part of making Örebro a cleaner, greener, nicer place and we think that making old, unwanted bikes usable and giving them to people that don’t have bikes is a great way of getting more people cycling.

How can you help?
We need bikes! If you or someone you know has an unwanted bike to donate, please get in touch and we will come and collect it. If you are involved in an organisation (e.g. a housing association) that has many unwanted bikes, we will take them off your hands.
We also need money for tools, parts, and for the general running of the organisation. As soon as we have our organisation number we will be ready for donations. We want to work with bike shops, sports associations, other not for profit organisations and pretty much anyone else who wants to be
involved, so if that’s you - let us know. :-)