our lives is to help other people"
This is a great philosophy to live by and with this thought in mind, a charity was chosen to be incorporated into ride. As mentioned, this is about getting to know the people and cultures on my route, but I also wanted it to mean something a bit more than just "Aaron on a World Tour!" I was fortunate to meet a man I have admired for a long time for his amazing bike handling skills, Hans Ray. Hans and I had a short discussion about my upcoming trip and it was then that he let me know about his charity, Wheels4Life. He gave me the general outline of what the charity does and I followed up with a visit to the website for more details. After looking at the website and subsequent emails with Hans, I am now happy to say I will be traveling ambassadors for Wheels4Life! It is my sincere hope that I will not only fulfill my dream of riding around the planet, but will also help to change the lives of many people along the way. PLEASE click on the Wheels4Life link and take a look at the wonderful things Hans and his volunteers are doing. Maybe you too will be inspired to give a bit of yourself to help others.
For us, bicycles are recreational equipment, but for some people a bicycle can mean survival.
A bicycle can make all the difference in a person's life. It can be the difference between having a job or not, going to school or not, seeing a doctor or not...
Wheels4Life is a non-profit organization that provides bikes for people in developing countries in need of transportation to get to work or to school, including health care workers. Wheels4life was founded by extreme biking legend and former Mountain Bike World Champion Hans Rey (hansrey.com).
Hans has been a professional athlete for 20 years and he still travels the world promoting biking and riding the unridable. He has been competing and demonstrating his talents in 60 countries. In recent years, he has been filming documentaries with his "Hans Rey Adventure Team", combining his extreme biking skills with different cultures, always in search of something historical or mysterious.
Wheels4Life is Hans's way of giving something back to the people he has met on his journeys. Hans remains grateful for the opportunities and career he had through the sport.
How It Works:
Wheels4Life is a non-profit charity (501c(3)) that provides free bicycles for people in need of transportation in Third World countries. We partner with local individuals, organizations, and other groups to help us identify persons who sincerely need a bike to be able to go to school or to work. Often these people live in very primitive and remote areas with no access or means to public transportation. The closest school, doctor, or work place might be 10 or 20 miles away. Having a bike can make all the difference in somebody’s life and can give him a chance to break out of the vicious poverty cycle. The gift of mobility, in form of a bicycle, can do miracles.
We carefully select the persons who receive a bike, with the help of local institutions, organizations and/or individuals. Some of our requirements include that the persons don’t already have alternative means of transportation nor can they afford public transportation (when available). People who just want to get a bicycle because it's free, will be eliminated quickly from our selection process.
Often we buy the bicycle in the country were its needed. This helps the local economy and it makes it much easier to find replacement parts. It also saves us expenses in shipping, handling, import taxes, duties, storage, etc…
Once we grow bigger we will import bikes by the container, which will lower the cost per unit even more. At the moment a bicycle approximately costs us between US $50 to $150.
We keep our administrative costs and overhead as low as possible. 90 - 95% of the funds received are going towards buying bikes. Everybody in our charity works on a volunteer level for free. We only have to pay some minimal bookkeeping fees to our accountant. Hans Rey pays for all his charity related travel expenses out of his own pocket. We keep the costs down as much as we can, in order to buy more bikes.
Thank you to all of our supporters and friends who help us in many ways such as designing this web site, designing artwork for postcards or banners, printing us free banners, hosting our web site, etc…
All donations are 100% tax deductible.
For volunteer info or services please contact us via email.
Board Members:
- Hans Rey (Executive Director)
- Andrew Herrick (Chairman of the Board)
- Carmen Freeman (Treasurer, Secretary)
- Diana Graber
- Mark Peterman
- Joey Santley
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