Lesbos Bike Project
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
The two main refugee camps on the Greek island of Lesbos, Moria (7000 people) & Kara Tepe (1000 people), are 11km & 6km from Mytiline, the capital city. The camps are under-resourced, overcrowded and inhumane. This means people have to walk 1 to 3 hours to travel between the camps and the centre, and even longer to reach other parts of the island to find other resources and services. Having access to a bike can save hours of walking, giving a sense of autonomy and a safer way to travel, especially for women. Access to bikes can make a real difference to people’s lives on Lesbos, many who are stuck on the island indefinitely due to the 2016 EU-Turkey deal.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/09/oxfam-criticises-eu-inhumane-lesbos-refugee-camp-moria
https://reliefweb.int/report/greece/two-years-eu-turkey-deal-creates-misery-and-desperation-those-stuck-greek-islands
For a full write up of the project objectives, outcomes, and methods, please read this document.
Low-tech with Refugees is a project currently running in a community centre on Lesbos. The project focuses on low-tech, simple solutions that people can use to fulfill their basic needs on the island. The project has been running for just over a year and now has an open space – called the ‘Makerspace’, where anyone can go to create and repair objects.
Displaced people in Lesbos have to walk for a couple hours between the refugee camps and other services, access to a bike can save people this tiring and unsafe journey. In order to address this need, the Makerspace has created a small bike workshop, many people have been going to learn and repair their bikes free of charge.
Currently, the bike workshop is still very basic. Due to the large demand, the workshop would really benefit from lots of extra parts and tools to expand its capacity and help more people get their bikes working.
While I am there this summer, I will be running a 3 week bike mechanic training course. This will give 5 people (refugees and local people) the necessary skills & experience to continue supporting the Low-tech with Refugees project, and to impart them with a useful skill set for their future journey.
On top of this I am looking to source lots of new & second-hand bike parts & tools from the UK to ship over to the Makerspace. This would mean the workshop is sustainable for the next year and would be able to repair 300 bikes for refugees and local people.
If you are able to donate it will help us fund the training course for new mechanics, and fund parts & tools for the workshop for the next year, meaning the project is able to give bikes away and continue doing the great work of teaching people to repair their bikes.
If you can donate parts or tools, please email [email protected] to arrange this.
To make the course accessible we will provide bus passes and food for participants during the course.
6 x bus passes @ £20 = £120
6 x food @ £6/day for 15 days = £540
Here is an estimated breakdown of what we need to pay for. I will be delivering the course on a voluntary basis so that more funds can go to making the project sustainable long term.
Tools: For new mechanics, to equip the workshop for the long term, and to enable mobile workshops to operate in the camps & elsewhere on the island: £1000
Parts to refurbish bikes during the training course and throughout the year: £2000
Transporting parts & tools from UK to Lesvos: £500
Organisational costs (use of workshop space, recruiting & supporting participants, logistics, accounts): £1365
We will prioritise paying to support the participants on the course and organisational costs, and once those costs are covered will put the money towards supplying the project with tools & parts.
The parts and tools we could spend limitless amounts on if we want to keep the bike project running for longer, so if we exceed our initial target then we will order more parts & pay for more postage! And if we don’t reach it, we won’t buy as many parts.
Anonymous
-
$6,000.00
Funding Goal -
$0.00
Funds Raised -
0
Days to go -
Campaign Never Ends
Campaign End Method
Product Description
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
The two main refugee camps on the Greek island of Lesbos, Moria (7000 people) & Kara Tepe (1000 people), are 11km & 6km from Mytiline, the capital city. The camps are under-resourced, overcrowded and inhumane. This means people have to walk 1 to 3 hours to travel between the camps and the centre, and even longer to reach other parts of the island to find other resources and services. Having access to a bike can save hours of walking, giving a sense of autonomy and a safer way to travel, especially for women. Access to bikes can make a real difference to people’s lives on Lesbos, many who are stuck on the island indefinitely due to the 2016 EU-Turkey deal.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/09/oxfam-criticises-eu-inhumane-lesbos-refugee-camp-moria
https://reliefweb.int/report/greece/two-years-eu-turkey-deal-creates-misery-and-desperation-those-stuck-greek-islands
For a full write up of the project objectives, outcomes, and methods, please read this document.
Low-tech with Refugees is a project currently running in a community centre on Lesbos. The project focuses on low-tech, simple solutions that people can use to fulfill their basic needs on the island. The project has been running for just over a year and now has an open space – called the ‘Makerspace’, where anyone can go to create and repair objects.
Displaced people in Lesbos have to walk for a couple hours between the refugee camps and other services, access to a bike can save people this tiring and unsafe journey. In order to address this need, the Makerspace has created a small bike workshop, many people have been going to learn and repair their bikes free of charge.
Currently, the bike workshop is still very basic. Due to the large demand, the workshop would really benefit from lots of extra parts and tools to expand its capacity and help more people get their bikes working.
While I am there this summer, I will be running a 3 week bike mechanic training course. This will give 5 people (refugees and local people) the necessary skills & experience to continue supporting the Low-tech with Refugees project, and to impart them with a useful skill set for their future journey.
On top of this I am looking to source lots of new & second-hand bike parts & tools from the UK to ship over to the Makerspace. This would mean the workshop is sustainable for the next year and would be able to repair 300 bikes for refugees and local people.
If you are able to donate it will help us fund the training course for new mechanics, and fund parts & tools for the workshop for the next year, meaning the project is able to give bikes away and continue doing the great work of teaching people to repair their bikes.
If you can donate parts or tools, please email [email protected] to arrange this.
To make the course accessible we will provide bus passes and food for participants during the course.
6 x bus passes @ £20 = £120
6 x food @ £6/day for 15 days = £540
Here is an estimated breakdown of what we need to pay for. I will be delivering the course on a voluntary basis so that more funds can go to making the project sustainable long term.
Tools: For new mechanics, to equip the workshop for the long term, and to enable mobile workshops to operate in the camps & elsewhere on the island: £1000
Parts to refurbish bikes during the training course and throughout the year: £2000
Transporting parts & tools from UK to Lesvos: £500
Organisational costs (use of workshop space, recruiting & supporting participants, logistics, accounts): £1365
We will prioritise paying to support the participants on the course and organisational costs, and once those costs are covered will put the money towards supplying the project with tools & parts.
The parts and tools we could spend limitless amounts on if we want to keep the bike project running for longer, so if we exceed our initial target then we will order more parts & pay for more postage! And if we don’t reach it, we won’t buy as many parts.
Anonymous
| ID | Name | Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1244 | Listing Agent | [email protected] | |
| 1215 | Listing Agent | [email protected] |
