Loading bicycles into containers for Africa, Liebefeld

About the event

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

Thanks to your help, we can export additional bikes to the south, train more bike mechanics, and get students cycling.

Your task will be to load a shipping container with bicycles. The bikes were donated to Velafrica and repaired and prepared for export at one of over thirty locations in Switzerland. Loading the container is the last step in Switzerland before a long journey across many countries. Around 50 containers are loaded at four different locations in Switzerland each year. One container can hold around 500 bikes and hundreds of spare parts.

Velafrica has been collecting discarded bicycles since 1993, repairing them, and shipping them to Africa. Every year, over 20,000 bikes make their way to the southern hemisphere, where they make life easier for people there. In addition to promoting mobility, Velafrica supports the establishment of bicycle workshops and the training of mechanics. This creates jobs and income opportunities in bicycle assembly, repair, and distribution. In Switzerland, Velafrica works with social institutions that employ unemployed people and people with disabilities, as well as institutions involved in the enforcement of measures. In this way, integration work is successfully combined with development cooperation.