What we do

What’s the point of The Bike Project anyway? Our Impact in 2018

2018 was a stonking year for The Bike Project. What’s that you say? Exactly how stonking?

Well, here are the numbers, courtesy of our shiny new Impact Report:

  • 1208 bikes donated (28% to women, up from 19% in 2017)
  • 78 different countries represented among our recipients
  • 107 refugee women attended 709 Pedal Power cycle lessons
  • 79 Bike Buddy matches
  • 2533 hours donated by 63 awesome volunteers (29% of whom were refugees)
  • £170,000 raised through our online shop
  • £1.3m saved on bus fares thanks to our bike donations
  • 24 bike drop off points
  • 1 National Lottery Award (still proud!)

With so much going on last year, it’s impossible to get into too much detail in a short blog post – but here’s more on our core service, bike donations.

2018 was a record year as we donated an impressive 1208 bikes. This works out at one bike for every 90 minutes that we were open, and brings our running total to more than 4260 bikes in the last 6 years.

The impact of a bike on recipients is immense. Here are a few quotes from refugees who got bikes from us in 2018:

‘Before I can’t go to college because of finance issues, now I can use my bike to go to school everyday.’

‘I am proud to be one of the African women refugees who can now cycle freely in London city. This is a dream come true and thanks to The Bike Project I am now one of them.’

‘I use my bike for moving about, not sitting still, getting rid of stress, forgetting about what I saw in DRC.’

Refugees can register for a bike very easily online, but there can be up to 350 people on our waiting list at any one time. Our solution? More bikes!

In 2019 we’re aiming to break our records again with 1400 bike donations – and, of course, you can help us by passing on your old wheels, donating your time or money, or simply buying some sweet, sweet merch in our shop.

You can download a PDF of the full impact report here – and, don’t worry, it’s fun to read and full of pretty pictures. Like this one:

Finally, a big thank you for your continuing support. As Adam Ognall, our chair of trustees says, ‘The Bike Project is nothing without the supporters, volunteers, trustees, beneficiaries and staff who drive forward our work.’

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