The 2019 Brisbane
Bicycle Short Film Festival is fast approaching.
This year, it’s on Friday 29th March at the Schonell
Theatre (UQ) St Lucia, Brisbane.
This Bike Festival
is a great night out and Space
for Cycling Brisbane does a great job of putting this festival together.
It’s not surprising
that tickets sell out quickly.
To start the night you can join the Style not Speed social ride to get there. On arrival, there is usually some bicycle-themed entertainment and a chance to mingle and chat about all things bikey.
Image: Style Over Speed (Brisbane)
The festival is divided
into two parts.
The first half
showcases the finalists of the Brisbane Bike Bite entrants. These are local
short films of no more than 5 mins and are often the most popular part of the
night.
This film’s synopsis
is 2600 kilometers, 420 dollars, 30 days, 5 bikes, 3 cameras, 2
guitars, 1 voice, and one of the most influential novels of the 20th century –
The Bikes of Wrath is a story of adventure, physical struggle, human
connection, cultural commentary and the American Dream.
Looks super interesting!
So, if you have not
done so already – get your tickets!
For many years, World Bicycle Relief (WBR) has supplied bicycles to some of the world’s most vulnerable people to help increase access to education, healthcare and income-generation opportunities. WBR has a number of corporate sponsors and partnerships. This story details a unique collaboration between WBR, ING Bank and World Vision, called the Orange Bicycle Project. This story comes courtesy of WBR and serves as a reminder that bicycles really do create change. Enjoy! NG.
Dutch financial institution ING has built their corporate purpose around “empowering people to stay a step ahead, in life and in business.” While ING remains committed to this purpose in their day-to-day banking work, they also wanted to integrate it into their corporate giving efforts.
And if they could find a way to honor their Dutch bicycling heritage at the same time, even better! The organization did just that by developing a sustainable transportation relief program: the Orange Bike Project.
Image: World Bicycle Relief
ING collaborated with World Bicycle Relief (WBR) and World Vision Philippines to bring bicycles to children living in remote locations in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.
The project is modeled after WBR’s Bicycles for Educational Empowerment Program (BEEP) and aspires to raise enough funds over five years to build and distribute 5,000 bicycles to students who must walk long distances to school every day.
WBR’s educational programs in Africa have demonstrated that reducing students’ travel time to school helps improve attendance and performance.
Bicycle-riding students are more likely to stay in school, improving their career prospects and future income potential as well. As Mark Newman, CEO of ING Asia, says, “We hope that the ING Orange Bike project will be able to create a lasting impact that empowers the students, their families and the community to keep moving forward in life.”
The project’s orange ING-branded Buffalo Bicycle is specially designed for rough, rural terrain and can carry loads up to 100 kg – making it useful for the student’s family to transport crops and goods to the market when school is not in session.
As of December 2016, 3,200 bicycles have been distributed through the Orange Bike Project. The program’s impact is carefully monitored by a local implementing agency, and the results have been spectacular!
In several beneficiary schools in the Philippines, attendance has increased by at least 33% and grades by at least 51%. The bicycles have also helped recipient families bring more goods to market, increasing their income.
ING has plans to raise $200,000 annually to continue the program through 2018. Employee fundraising groups like the ING Orange Bike Cycling Challenge have helped ING reach its goal by raising $75,000 in 2016. The program has benefited from the enthusiastic support of ING employees and friends who all share the organization’s commitment to empowering individuals.
Shayne Prashan, ING employee and team leader for the ING Orange Bike Cycling Challenge, was motivated to fundraise for the project because of the emotional enlightenment it offered him. “It’s about the only superpower that makes us human: empathy.”
Shayne says. “It invites us on one of the greatest and most courageous adventures of our lives: to step into someone else’s shoes to understand their struggles and to help them walk through life with confidence and faith.”
The new year break is a time when many families hit the road for an annual holiday.
Cars full of people travel up and down the Australian East Coast heading to their favourite travel destination.
If you find yourself travelling through Central NSW, why not check out the Animals on Bikes tourist trail?
Animals on Bikes is a 120km creative ‘paddock art’ installation of…. well…. animals on bikes… that you can see from your car as you drive along.
What is Animals on Bikes?
Originally, the inspiration for the project (started by Christine Western), was to capitalize on local tourist services and attractions, such as the Dubbo Zoo.
But as 8 years of drought continued to ravage local farms, it also become a way ‘to boost morale and improve the economic health of our rural-reliant central west communities’.
Animals on Bikesstarted in 2009 as a series of 45 creative 2-metre high sculptures and some smaller ones created by local farmers, farmers wives, Men’s sheds, bus drivers, preschool kids, playgroup mums and other locals.
Now, there are over 100 sculptures on display.
All installations are located off the main highway, between Molong and the Dubbo Zoo, via Cumnock and Yeoval. You can download a map and self-drive a route that suits you.
Image: Animals on Bikes
This project is quite remarkable.
Its impressive that the local community galvanised to link into, and extend, the local region’s tourism industry in creative and unique ways – as well as showcasing the talent, humour and ingenuity of local residents.
Many rural areas are being negatively affected by new highway developments that bypass communities – a theme immortalized as per Radiator Springs in the Disney movie ‘Cars’ for instance. This project is a great example of one community’s proactive approach to redress this.
Image: Rosie the Red Backed Spider. Animals on BikesImage: Animals on BikesImage: Australian TravellerImage: Animals on BikesImage: Animals on BikesImage: Animals on Bikes Image: Animals on Bikes
A big thanks to Claire Tracey, who suggested this story after seeing Animals on Bikes on a trip from Brisbane to Canberra. Thank you! We love it!
While researching how bicycles are used in communities in the Middle East, I came across this story from Israel about Meir Farkash. Farkash has been using his own bicycle as a volunteer bicycle emergency (EMS) responder in Ramat Hasharon (a coastal city located south of Tel Aviv).
I love this story because it showcases how positive one person on a bike can be in a community. I love that Meir is a student, a volunteer, that he has been so incredibly effective at saving lives as a bicycle emergency first-responder, and that now he is somewhat of a community icon as he makes his way around town. What a wonderful example of how cyclists can make significant positive community change. This story was first published in Israel Rescue. Enjoy, NG.
Image: Israel Rescue
Ramat Hasharon Hesder Yeshiva Student, Meir Farkash (25), is known to be the pinnacle lifesaver of his city. Over the past four years in which Farkash has been a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT, Farkash has responded to more than 2,500 emergency calls.
Among his myriad of emergency calls, more than 300 have been life-threatening. What’s even more impressive is that Farkash has responded to all of these calls on his personal bicycle.
In honor of his continued dedication to saving lives, United Hatzalah has given the active volunteer a first response e-bicycle that was donated to the organization for him by the residents of the city to honor Farkash’s selfless work.
Over the past four years, Meir Farkash has become somewhat of a local celebrity in Ramat Hasharon. The image of him pedaling through the streets in order to rush to a scene and save someone’s life is residents of that many residents have come to know and support.
“Today there are lots of people who say hello to me as I pass them on response e-bicycle. I say hello back. I have come to know many residents, and residents of me, through the EMS activities that I undertake and the calls that I respond to,” said Farkash.
The day before Farkash received the bicycle, he saved the life of one of the city’s citizens. He was dispatched to the car of a known lawyer from the city who had lost consciousness while he was with his family. Farkash, who arrived in just moments with his bicycle, began CPR and help resuscitate the man with the Intensive Care ambulance team that arrived at the scene. Farkash joined the ambulance team in transporting the patient to the hospital, and the man was released a few days later, alive and well enough to go home.
When asked if he knew the total number of lives he has saved, Farkash said:
I have never really thought about it. Now that you mention it, it gives me a really good feeling. Truth be told, even calls that are more general and do not involve a life being saved per se, they too give me and other volunteers a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing that we helped somebody who needed us.
In every case we respond to, you meet a person who is incapable of helping themselves at that moment. You help them, you comfort them and you make sure they receive the best care that they can. That is the job of being a first responder. It’s not about the glory, it’s about helping people.”
When asked if he knew the total number of lives he has saved, Farkash said that: “I have never really thought about it. Now that you mention it, it gives me a really good feeling. Truth be told, even calls that are more general and do not involve a life being saved per se, they too give me and other volunteers a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing that we helped somebody who needed us.
In every case we respond to, you meet a person who is incapable of helping themselves at that moment. You help them, you comfort them and you make sure they receive the best care that they can. That is the job of being a first responder.”
It’s not about the glory, it’s about helping people. Meir Farkash.
Today I read Paulus Maringka’s Greencycle Masters Thesis.
Paulus undertook this research with Auckland University of Technology in 2010. I found this manuscript online and was initially drawn to read it as this bicycle-inspired community development project had a number of cross-over themes with my own current PhD research project.
This thesis was a pleasure to
read. It was clearly written, on-topic and full of interesting images to help
break up blocks of text.
It was great to see a new approach to many of the issues I can currently researching, like bicycle use in developing countries, local adaptations and resources, impacts of cultural needs and contexts, and how users personalise their bicycles.
Equally, reading the chapters on
the technical design and development phases was also interesting as this project
centres on a product creation and intervention, whereas mine does not.
Below is Maringka’s thesis’ abstract, thesis organisation and some of the key images from the thesis, which gives a solid overview of the project without having to read it in its entirety.
This Greencycle project applies a
system approach to shift design thinking and practices away from the ongoing
unsustainable use of resources towards a more sustainable framework of
consumption whereby local cultures, skills, resources and technology are
analyzed to inform the design and development of a human powered transportation
system.
It uses a trans-disciplinary
research and design approach by consulting all stakeholders; including farmers
in a Third World country, industrial designers, engineers and manufacturers to
provide information, understanding and insights as a basis to find solutions
that have enabled this research study to produce a system called Greencycle
which utilizes renewable materials and indigenous people skills to produce a
bicycle that is more sustainable.
The bicycle provides more than
basic transportation to go from A to B. Poor countries need and depend on this
mode of transportation for a wide range of uses; thus expanding its function
and uses would be of great benefit to its users.
This research study has created a
series of accessories to extend a bicycle’s functionality, with the core being
made from sustainable materials and local skills. For this project it would
have been a simple process for the designer to come up with a concept idea(s)
that was based on a personal view of what would be a suitable solution for the
target user.
Instead however, the designer has
used feedback from the target group participants to shape and develop the
design process and to ensure the design will be acceptable for the target user
to use and manufacture.
This research study has included four expert interviews, eleven case studies of target users, prototype testing and field experiments with sustainable resources to gather information, understanding and insights from these stakeholders in order to propose, design and evaluate two Greencycles (using sustainable bamboo material) and a series of design accessories.
This multi-discipline approach to the design problem has revealed many opportunities that would otherwise be hidden by less detailed research and design methodology. Many academic studies stop at the point when the written thesis is complete.
This research study has included four expert interviews, eleven case studies of target users, prototype testing and field experiments with sustainable resources to gather information, understanding and insights from these stakeholders in order to propose, design and evaluate two Greencycles (using sustainable bamboo material) and a series of design accessories. This multi-discipline approach to the design problem has revealed many opportunities that would otherwise be hidden by less detailed research and design methodology. Many academic studies stop at the point when the written thesis is complete.
This research project went a step
further by testing and implementing its findings on users back in its intended
marketplace to ensure the design will be adopted by and be successful for
people in Third World countries.
As a result of this research,
there is now an opportunity to look at and create a business model that
provides new income opportunities for the local people.
Feedback for the Greencycle design and its accessories has so far been very encouraging, with participants showing a significant level of enthusiasm. To take advantage of this success, a business proposition to market these sustainable products seems plausible as a first step to developing this business venture. Information posters to showcase the accessories and their functions and applications have been designed to test market demands and other important indicators for future business development and strategy.
Thesis Organisation
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduces and scopes the areas of research and need for functional, usable and sustainable human powered machines.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Provides critical analysis through literature review and
internet ethnography to gain an understanding and knowledge of bicycle
functionality and bicycle users in Third World countries. This chapter also
reviews literature and provides a study background on Bicycle Ergonomics, Green
Materials and Sustainability.
Chapter 3: Research Design &
Research Methods
Outlines the research design and design methods approach
to the design generation and development of the Greencycle and accessories.
Chapter 4: Significant Findings
Presents the significant findings and the major
discoveries that formed the design criteria of the Greencycle and accessories.
Chapter 5: Design &
Development Phases
Details the design phases and iterative processes in the
development phases of the Greencycle and the accessories.
Chapter 6: Evaluation
Details the evaluation outcomes of an integrated approach
for the concept design thinking of the Greencycle and accessories, including
materials and manufacturing processes.
Chapter 6: Discussion &
Conclusion
The Discussion and Conclusion provides a reflection on what has been achieved and the future of the Greencycle and the accessories.
Abstract, chapter organization & images: Paulus Maringka (2010)Greencycle .
One of the courses I teach at Griffith Uni is 1205MED Health Challenges for the 21st century. It is a compulsory first-year undergrad course for all Health Sciences degrees. I really enjoy teaching it. The first major assessment is a research essay topic exploring the link between malaria (health) and climate change (environment). Climate change is a global issue that has serious repercussions that go far beyond health. I was delighted to see cyclists the world around rallying to raise awareness about climate change. This particular protest caught my attention because Pakistani cyclists are not often featured in international news – so it was great to see them out in force and mobilizing against climate change. NG.
Collectively, these events hope to build on work strated by the December 2015 Paris Agreement, which was the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate.
Pakistan is not the first country that usually comes to mind when we think of climate change action.
Even so, considering that Pakistan is predicted to be one of the most vulnerable nations to be impacted by climate change (despite the country’s low level of its global carbon emissions), it is understandable that CDD would make the news.
Image: Dunya News
Islamabad rides against climate change
Islamabad celebrated CDD with three key events; a massive public bike protest, a documentary screening and an art competition.
This aim of this years’ event program was to encourage communities to take back the decision making control about climate policy out of bureaucracy hands and back give it back to the community.
The bike protest had a massive turn out. The protest saw riders taking over the streets of Islamabad as a way to highlight rampant greenhouse emissions by promoting bikes as a more eco-friendlier mode of transportation.
The ride was followed by a public screening of a documentary called Thank You For The Rain, which follows the damage climate change has had on a Kenyan farmer, his family and his village.
There was also a local exhibition called the Climate Diplomacy Art Competition, which showcased local students’ climate change inspirited art. The theme for the art competition was Challenges of Climate Change – Pakistan’s Youth on the Front Line.
Image: Dunya News
Events like Islamabad’s CDD are very important in helping raise awareness for climate action.
It is also a sobering reminder that no matter where you are – in Pakistan, Australia or anywhere else in the world – we are all united by this common issue.
I find it reassuring there are so many people who are equally passionate about the environment, cycling and who want more positive environmental and community change.
As regular readers of this blog know, I post a little about teaching and my PhD progress, but mainly, this blog shares ideas, events and research where bicycles are creating positive community change. The story below from Mexico City (first published by Citylab Latino, then translated into English by Andrea Penman-Lomeli for Citylab) definitely fits the bill. It is exciting to see strong advocacy and support for cycling in the more challenging-to-ride urban cities. Earlier this year I posted on the difficulties of riding in Kampala, Uganda. Now, Mexico City has been making news by progressing cycling in Latin America with their first ever Bicycle Mayor. Bicicletas de larga duración!!
Source: @bicycle.culture.mexico
Cycling Mexico City: Background
Mexico City falls far short of the cycling infrastructure that bike activists dream of: as many residents say, it’s no Amsterdam. Although only 30 percent of daily trips in the city are made via private car (the other 70 percent are made by public transportation, by bike, or on foot), Mexico City is known for some of the worst traffic in the world and nearly toxic levels of pollution. Since 2006, there have been over 1,600 cyclist deaths.
Because of these deterrents, cycling activism has been two-fold, lobbying city authorities to integrate cycling infrastructure into the urban plan and promoting a cycling culture among city residents.
In the last decade, cycling has become especially relevant to the city’s agenda. In 2007 the city launched Muévete en Bici, a program that blocks cars from several main streets on Sundays so that cyclists can have the streets to themselves. In 2010, Mexico City implemented a bike share program, EcoBici, the first in Latin America.
Source: Getty Images
Current cycling context in Mexico City
So far, the city’s only got 140 kilometers of the 600 kilometers of bike lanes that bike activists estimate it needs, but when EcoBici started, the city was virtually devoid of biking infrastructure. Ecobici now has around 6,500 bikes and over 240,000 registered users (which, they argue, is the largest in North America).
In July 2014, a new mobility law placed cyclists and pedestrians at the top of a mobility hierarchy and introduced cycling language into urban plans for the first time. However, beyond moving into the next phases of EcoBici and implementing sorely needed safety measures, the plans were vague—plus, critics challenge the special hierarchy, noting that if cyclists were truly at the top, government infrastructure spending would reflect that.
The first Latin-American Bike Mayor
Mexico City has a long way to go before it’s truly bike-friendly, but now, the city has a bike mayor—the first in all of Latin America. During the 2017 Sixth Annual World Bicycle Forum, the activist Areli Carreón was elected to the post by forum attendees in an online election. In addition to promoting cycling, she will act as an intermediary between cyclists, community groups, Mexico City’s government, and the bike mayors from Amsterdam and Sydney.
The position doesn’t confer any formal power, but it doesn’t mean that Carreón won’t be able to make an impact.
Source: Areli Carreón
What are key bike points for Bike Mayor Areli Carreón?
“Mexico City is a city that has already incorporated cycling in many ways,” she says. “It has completely transformed the face of the city, the urban logic of the city center.” However, twenty years ago, when she started as a cycling activist, she saw a very different culture. “People used to make fun of us,” says Carreón. “They’d say, ‘why do you want to ride on the street? Why don’t you ride around the park?’”
Since its founding in 1998, Carreón’s organization, Bicitekas A.C., has promoted cycling through community rides and by lobbying for public policies. Their campaigns seek to raise awareness of cycling and the environment. According to Carreón, Biciteka “is the oldest organization that has lobbied for cycling in Mexico City.”
From blockades and protests to speeches and reports, Carreón has attempted to influence public opinion and city leadership in every way possible, including the production of the Urban Cyclist Manuel, the first comprehensive guide for cyclists in the city, and the first of its kind in Latin America. “We did workshops, led courses, put on parties, created art pieces and videos for museums. We have 20 years of innovation under our belts. We’ve tried by all possible means to convince, encourage, and promote this idea that we must move by different means,” she says. “But it took 20 years for city authorities to look at cycling as more than just a pastime.”
Source: Ronaldo Schemidt:AFP: Getty Images
What is a ‘bike mayor’?
The concept of the bicycle mayor began in 2016 with a proposal from the Dutch nonprofit CycleSpace to create a global network of activists that could promote cycling at the international level. In an online election in June, 2016, Anna Luten was chosen as Amsterdam’s first bicycle mayor. But, some asked, did a city already well-known for being bike-friendly really need another promoter?
At the opposite end is Mexico City. Although it has achieved a “radical” change in culture, according to Carreón, and many infrastructural changes for its cyclists, extreme pollution and congestion are hurdles to it becoming a truly bike-friendly city.
Source: Mexico Bike Tours
Looking forward
As she settles into her position, Carreón hopes to facilitate broad participation in urban planning. Beyond seeing an increasing in bike lanes and safety precautions for cyclists, she also wants to invite community members to share their visions.
As her role continues to take shape, two other bike mayors—Amsterdam’s Anna Luten and Sydney’s Sarah H. Imm—will meet with Carreón.
Although it remains to be seen what authority the bicycle mayor position will afford her, Carreón will likely continue to do the work she’s spent her entire life doing. “Biking has transformed the city into a laboratory of possibilities. It’s awakened our collective imagination and made us assert our needs as members of a society,” she says. “Exactly what this can lead to, I’m not sure. But it’s exciting.”
Cycling with friends in Mexico City. Source: @xoocuamatzin
This event is a national program that encourages workers to feel good and have fun commuting to work by bike.
The aim of Ride2Work is to promote the health, financial and environmental benefits of riding and encourage more people to ride to work. Ride2Work Day helps people who have never commuted by bike before to give it a go and allows regular riders to stay motivated and encourage their work-mates to get involved.
To be involved, participants register their ride on Ride2Work Day website. Registering is a way peak bicycle advocacy groups can better understand bike commuter behaviour and help leverage campaigns for better riding facilities to councils, local and state governments.
Most capital cities hold a Ride2Work Day breakfast event. I went to last year breakfast in Brisbane and this year we had a Griffith Uni crew meeting there.
It has been raining for a week in Brisbane, but when I woke up early. It was a beautiful crisp morning, and I was looking forward to meeting the other 8 Griffith Uni cyclists in at the Brisbane Law Courts Plaza, 7.00 – 8.15am for a free cyclist’s breakfast, coffee, chat with some fellow riders and to see what the stalls and tents had to offer.
I was excited!
I took Leki and we arrived in the city early.
So I took a little sojourn along the Brisbane River. Then I started heading in the direction of the Law Courts and ended up joining up along the way with another rider named Peter. We chatted as we rode along, marvelling at the beautiful morning and how lucky we were that the rain broke for this event.
But when we arrived at the event site, this is what we saw…..
After a quick chat with a few other cyclists and some phone calls, we found out the event had been cancelled due to rain – obviously!
Funny, none of us knew the event had been cancelled or had received any notification.
I checked the Bicycle Queensland website and Instagram before I left and there was no notification – hence heading out. A friend said later there was a short post on Bicycle Queensland’s Facebook page – not so helpful for those who don’t use Facebook – perhaps an email for those who had registered?
And nothing from the other Griffith cyclists either – interesting…!
No matter!
It was such a beautiful morning. I was certainly not going to waste this opportunity! So with Peter’s directions, I headed out towards West End on an adventurous morning ride.
Unsurprisingly, I had a great time!
Source: @wobert.mcglinn
I went scouting for a cool cafe to stop at before the morning traffic got too much, but ended up having such a lovely ride along the river, I just keep going!
I chatted to a few other cyclists and really enjoyed watching the city wake up.
I went to parts of the city I have not seen before and rode the long way back along the Brisbane River using a bike path I’ve never been on. GOLD!
It was awesome.
Tired, sweaty and happy – I then started to head back.
So despite the Brisbane event being cancelled- I had a brilliant ride to work.
This week I’ve been working on my PhD Ethics Application for my PhD. As I do this, there have been two international dates that have individually been very important, but collectively add gravity to my Ethics Application. This has caused me to reflect deeper than usual in light of work I’m now doing around ethics, benevolence and risk.
Source: @GPforEducation
Two key dates
Internationally, World Teachers’ Day was held on 5 October.
Celebrated in more than 100 countries world-wide, World Teachers’ Day was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1994 to recognise the role of teachers in society.
Last year on in Instagram for World Teachers Day, I celebrated the wonderful guidance, work and role that Dr Richard Johnson had for me in my decision to go into teaching.
Then, on 11th October, it was International Day of the Girl Child.
International Day of the Girl recognises the unique challenges that face girls globally and the enormous potential for change girls possess. So the main aims of the day are to promote girl’s empowerment and fulfilment of their human rights while also highlighting the challenges that girls all over the world face.
In the midst of these two major international commemorations and working on my Ethics Application – it is Malala Yousafzai who keeps popping into my head.
Malala – teachers, girls, rights and education
For me, Malala is the common thread the weaves these three events together and directly links them to my PhD. I can’t decide if she is an archetype, hero or champion (or all three) – but I know that she is the perfect embodiment of all the issues, pressures, challenges and dynamics my research is looking at.
My PhD explores NGOs that donate bicycles to rural African girls for greater access to secondary school. So, I read a lot about education, teachers, schooling in rural areas of developing countries, the feminisation of poverty, sociocultural barriers to girls’ education, gender equity and other local and inter/national geo-political issues.
Most people have heard of Malala.
Malala’s father was a teacher at an all-girls’ school in Pakistan. In 2008, the Taliban forcibly closed down their school. Malala publicly spoke out about the rights how girls have the right to an education – she was 11. She was shot in the face as retaliation. After being moved to the UK for her recovery and for safety, she continued to speak out for girls’ education.
She received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2014 and was the youngest-ever Nobel laureate. She continues her advocacy and activism work. She travels to many countries to meet girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage and gender discrimination to go to school. She has spoken at UN National Assemblies and internationally and established the Malala Fund which invests in developing country educators and activists, like her father, through Malala Fund’s Gulmakai Network.
I feel very humbled and inspired by Malala’s story, courage and persistence. She is a remarkable role model, advocate, change agent and activist. I have always been incredibly grateful for having the privilege to undertake my PhD. It is also a way
And on weeks like this one, Malala is a reminder of how important it is to continue and intensify the efforts for girls education.
The English Australia conference closed a few days ago. But I’ve stayed on in Sydney for some meetings, site visitations and to see family and friends. One meeting, in particular, I have been really looking forward to was with World Bicycle Relief’s Development Director Australia, Dagmar Geiger.
I was very excited to hear last year in May 2017, that WBR was opening a Sydney office.
Regular readers of this blog would be familiar with other posts I’ve uploaded about WBR’s bicycles-for-education programs – and this meeting was a great opportunity to chat with Dagmar in more detail.
World Bicycle Relief Australia – Meeting Dagmar Geiger
We met in a funky Newtown cafe and hit it off immediately.
Dagmar’s enthusiasm and passion for her work are obvious.
She is effervescent and thoughtful – and has a seemingly limitless amount of energy. Dagmar was also very interested in my blog, projects and PhD research and offered to help out where possible – which was so lovely!
We discussed WBR programs and how they are making positive changes in education, healthcare and income-generation opportunities. We also chatted about some events and fundraising efforts she has done.
It was especially interesting to hear about the stakeholder trip she took when she first started. On this trip to Africa, she got to experience first-hand the places, people and projects she now advocates.
It was lovely to be able to chat with a like-minded person who loves bikes and community building as much as I do.
It was a delight to meet Dagmar and hear what WBR has been working on. We need more people like Dagmar sharing stories of bicycles and the positive community impacts they make.
Source: Port Macquarie News
Spreading the word
Since starting her role, Dagmar has been working hard to raise the profile and networks for WBR in Australia and has had a number of high-profile successes including:
In February, retired pro-cyclist Carlee Taylor XXI Commonwealth Games and Junior World Champion pro cyclist Alex Manly, and Olympian BMX pro rider Lauren Reynolds were announced as the first Australian Pro Althele WBR ambassadors.
I am very excited about the possibility of Dagmar visiting Brisbane.
As cyclists and riders, we inherently know how important, useful and significant bikes are. It is also humbling to hear about different experiences and contexts where bikes are helping individuals and communities conquer the challenge of poverty and distance to achieve independence and increase livelihoods.
World Bicycle Relief
World Bicycle Relief aims to mobilize people through the Power of Bicycles. They envision a world where distance is no longer a barrier to necessary services like education, healthcare and economic opportunity and are working towards increasing access and equity.
Since 2005, World Bicycle Relief has delivered over 400,000 bicycles and trained over 1, 900 bicycle mechanics and has changed over 1.7 million lives.
