Rotary Mullingar launches Bikes for Africa scheme

It might (or might not!) be true that the bikes are recycled when the Tour de France is over, but either way Mullingar Rotary Club is recycling bikes, and they’re doing it to help school children in Africa.

The School Bikes for Africa scheme is run by Rotary Ireland and the local club has signed up, and the collection point where people can drop off bicycles they no longer use is the council recycling centre in Clonmore.

At the launch in Mullingar last Wednesday, members of Rotary Mullingar were joined by guests from Rotary Ireland and officials from Westmeath County Council, whose leas-cathaoirleach, Cllr Bill Collentine (a member of Rotary Mullingar), welcomed them and explained how the scheme works.

He said that Rotary Ireland had been running the scheme for six years, and the two Westmeath clubs, Mullingar and Athlone, started this year. “Unwanted bicycles are donated and collected at this amenity centre in containers supplied by Westmeath County Council; they are then repaired at Loughan House Open Centre [in Blacklion, County Cavan], made roadworthy and shipped to Africa.

“Students there use the bicycles to get to school more easily. Some children have to walk long distances on no roads or bad roads – so having a bicycle makes a huge difference and improves their chances of education,” said Cllr Collentine. “It’s amazing how a bicycle discarded in Ireland can make such a difference to people in Africa and change the lives of children and families.

“We now have to encourage as many people as possible to donate bicycles, at this depot – and I have to thank Donald and the team from Mulleady’s who work here, as they look after taking in the bikes, and they have been very helpful in the setting up this project.

“I hope it will be successful and I know people of Westmeath will be supportive, as they always are when there’s a good cause.

“So, let’s get the word out there that we need all the bicycles not being used and get them in to this depot for the school children of Africa.”

Cllr Collentine thanked John Jackson and Ciaran Jordan from Westmeath County Council for their help for putting this project together.

Donal Lawlor, newly elected president of Mullingar Rotary, was MC for the launch and he welcomed the guests, who included Minister Robert Troy (a member of Mullingar Rotary), Cllr Frank McDermott, Cllr Hazel Smyth, Jason Dempsey, Rotary Ireland, International Services team leader; Dave Murray, district governor, Rotary Ireland; and Ian McGowan Smyth, assistant district governor, Rotary Ireland.

Mr Lawlor said: “First of all I’d like to say how great it is to be back meeting in person again, after the last 18 months we’ve all been through, so it’s great to get on the road again, helping out in our community, which is what Rotary wants to do, and it’s particularly great to be here with people from Rotary Ireland, who’ve had this programme running for a number of years.

“This has been a great project that helps people in Gambia, and it’s surprising how many bikes there are lying around doing nothing – this container is well filled, even with little publicity, so far.”

Donal thanked Westmeath County Council for the seamless way the project had been put in place, and then introduced Mr Murray, who said that he has spent a lot of time this year visiting prisons! The reason for that is “prisons and amenity centres, to give them the euphemistic term, have been a particularly important part of this”.

“The project is about the core purpose of Rotary, which is ordinary men and women coming together to try to make someone’s life a little better somewhere, in however small a way, and this project is about improving the lives of young Africans, but the next piece of it that’s fascinating is the bikes were refurbished at Loughan House open prison, and now a number of other prisons are coming on board because it has turned out to be one of the most rewarding the prisoners have ever had to do. This is not just working to keep people occupied, they’re doing something where they really feel they’re making a contribution and a difference and learning a skill.

“The enthusiasm for the Irish Prison Service for this project has been remarkable and has helped it to grow from relatively small beginnings, guided by Jason and others, to a really big success, and it continues to grow and thrive.

“The third element – yes, tick box on helping young Africans; tick box on rewarding work in prisons; – is the environmental piece, which is getting bikes to kids in Africa that might otherwise wind up in dumps or canals. So this is a win right across the board, but the prison piece of it is important, and the co-operation and help of the Prison Service have been invaluable.

“The other party in this is that these bikes need to be moved around – they need to be collected from here and taken to the prison where they’ll be refurbished, and the Defence Forces have been providing free transport services throughout, so this involves so many different strands of Irish society and I think that’s what’s made it the success that it is.

“It really is a pleasure to be here to see this, the 13th collection centre, and more to come, so thank you all for being here and it’s a pleasure to be present.”

Mr McGowan Smyth, a member of Navan Rotary, said the Bikes to Africa project has “been a phenomenal success” in that town: “I think we’re up on 1,000 bikes, so between local companies, the county council and everybody, it’s just captured the imagination of the community.

“That’s including the workers at the recycling centre – it’s given them a great buzz, I was talking to them last week, and they love the idea, getting the bikes and talking to people.”

Mr McGowan Smyth has contributed, with a little extra, to the scheme: “I had a bike in my own shed, my daughter’s bike, she got married a few weeks ago, and I said ‘do you want that bike?’. She said no. So I said I would give it to a child in Africa. Then she suggested putting a message in the seat post, so I put in a little note, just saying that ‘we hope the bike will give you some help’ – but I don’t know if it will ever be seen! But anyway, Bikes for Africa has captured people’s imagination, and it’s been organised on such a grand scale too, which is great.”