Cycle with a refugee in your local area

Bike Buddies is our refugee befriending programme, which matches bike recipients to friendly and passionate volunteers to go on bike rides together! 

As a Buddy, you’ll be matched with a refugee or asylum-seeking cyclist in your area. The project aims to build confidence and knowledge of cycling, reduce isolation, improve wellbeing and encourage social integration and greater independence. Going on a few rides can seem like a small task, but it can have a huge impact. After taking their bike home, some of our bike recipients can lack the confidence to cycle independently. Some may not have been in the UK very long, may never have ridden on a road, and or they may just not know the area they are living in well enough and are keen to explore! 

We need more Bike Buddies in these areas: Coventry, Teesside, North Birmingham, Croydon, and Heathrow:

We are looking for people who are passionate about cycling and can appreciate all the wonderful benefits it can bring. Since 2018, we have paired hundreds of Bike Buddies and started some lovely friendships.  Start your Bike Buddy journey today!

How does it work?

Apply here to be a Bike Buddy

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You’ll be asked to complete some basic training

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You’ll be matched with a refugee who received a bike from us

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You can get in touch with them as soon as you’d like

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Arrange to meet up for a bike ride! (Aim for at least 3 rides in this programme.)

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Victoria and Nasrin

Victoria and Nasrin were matched in 2019, and decided to go for a cycle in their local area together. Victoria was delighted with the experience, and the two enjoyed exploring their local area.

Victoria was especially proud of the progress her Buddy made!

It’s really satisfying to see someone go from wobbly to wonderful! Nasrin has progressed so much on the bike, and we had great fun on our ride to Denham Country Park. It’s lovely to be able to get out of the town and enjoy the nature near to us.

Jack and Saad

Saad received his bike from us in June 2019 and when he found out about the Bike Buddies programme, was immediately interested in taking part. He said:

“I wanted to experience it and found it interesting. With a volunteer, I can discover places calmly and it gives you vitality when riding a bike.

Bike Buddies volunteer, Jack, was equally as excited to take part:

“I found out about The Bike Project through Twitter, and I applied to the Bike Buddies scheme after seeing a particular tweet about there being a small number of places left on the training day. After a great day of training with other volunteers, I was hugely excited to get started and meet my first bike buddy.”

Through this befriending programme, we have matched 313 bike recipients with a local cyclist. We only need YOU to join us!
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