On two wheels out of poverty
Johannes Wolf from Germany is passionate about cycling, but he knows that bikes aren’t just a good way to get some exercise. In developing countries they can be crucial to running a small business and delivering goods. So he decided to start collecting used bikes from all over Germany in order to repair them and then ship them to African countries where they can be put to good use.
Listen to the report from Gaia Manco and Ronny Arnold in Dresden:
Johannes (left, standing) and his team in front of a container used to shipping bikes to Ghana. “Bikes for Africa” already shipped around 800 bikes to Ghana this year alone (Photo: Ronny Arnold)
Once the container reaches its destination, it is often transformed into a bike shop and repair station (Photo: Ronny Arnold)
Nurses and doctors can now reach more patients in a day than they would do on foot. In case of an emergency, a bike can turn into an ambulance (Photo: Ronny Arnold)
Mr. Howecka (pictured above) is a gardener. He used to walk, but according to Johannes Wolf now the bicycle is his business vehicle. He can reach more customers and take clients who live farther away (Photo: Ronny Arnold)
Johannes tries to visit one bike project a year. Here he is in Namibia, where he got the idea to start the project “Bikes for Africa” in the first place (Photo: Ronny Arnold)
