Recovering Bicycle Spare Parts for Africa, Zurich

About the event

Recycled bicycles from Switzerland combine social and professional integration within Switzerland with sustainable development cooperation in Africa.

With your support, we can export additional bicycles and spare parts to the Global South, train more bicycle mechanics, and enable students to become mobile by bicycle.

Your task will be:
Together with the staff of Werkraum4, you will dismantle bicycle parts and prepare them for export to Africa. Are brakes, handlebars, or gears still usable? How can one determine whether a bicycle chain is still functional? How are parts such as brakes, gears, tires, and tubes properly dismantled so they can be reused in Africa? You will learn all of this during the activity while working hands-on.

Since 1993, Velafrica has been collecting discarded bicycles, refurbishing them, and shipping them to Africa. Each year, more than 20,000 bicycles are sent to the South, making everyday life easier for people there. In addition to mobility, Velafrica promotes the establishment of bicycle workshops and the training of mechanics. This creates jobs and income opportunities in bicycle assembly, repair, and sales.

In Switzerland, Velafrica works with social institutions that employ job seekers and people with disabilities, as well as with institutions in correctional programs. In this way, integration work in Switzerland is successfully combined with development cooperation abroad.