2021-2024

Cycling out of poverty

2021-2024

WORLD BICYCLE RELIEF

World Bicycle Relief is committed to helping people overcome the challenge of distance. Its hybrid model is based around the donation of bicycles to those who can’t afford them. This donation system is paired with social enterprise sales that create new economic opportunities and sustainable cycling ecosystems. In the last 18 years World Bicycle Relief has distributed more than 712,000 bicycles in 21 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, empowering over two million women, men, and children (data up until 2024). We funded its operations in Zambia, where it’s driving a profound transformation in rural transport that will increase access to vital services.

www.worldbicyclerelief.org

CHALLENGE

Walking is the main mode of transport for most rural Zambians. Without public or private transit options, long distances are a barrier to attending school, receiving healthcare, and delivering goods to market.

ACTION

World Bicycle Relief provides specifically designed, locally assembled robust bicycles called Buffalo Bicycles to students, healthcare workers and farmers. Bicycles allow them to school or reach patients faster, transport more goods to earn a bigger income, or simply travel around their communities more effectively.

In the Mumbwa district of Zambia’s Central Province, World Bicycle Relief is working with communities to create a sustainable bicycle ecosystem. This includes setting up local assembly and distribution facility teams, training field mechanics to service bicycles and establishing social enterprise retail shops to ensure the availability of quality spare parts and repairs.

World Bicycle Relief aims to meet the mobility needs of 3,900 Zambians by 2024. It expects to effectively reach five times this number – a total of 19,500 people – because of the shared use of bicycles within each household.