Taxonomy upgrade extras
Photos by Carmen Freeman
Words by Josh Poulsen and Hans Rey
If you had the power to change the world, what would you do? Some people build homes and give blankets. Some bring fresh water and food. And others choose to give bikes that change lives.
Hans ”No way” Rey—a cross-country mountain bike world champion—founded Wheels4Life (W4L) because he knows first hand how bicycles could change lives. After a successful racing career, he looked for a new way to use the joy and freedom that biking brings to change people’s lives. Since February 2009, W4L has delivered over 900 bikes worldwide to worthy recipients in Central and South America, Asia, and many countries throughout Africa.
With donations, awareness, fundraisers and other support from world-class riders and rockers such as Wade Simmons, Brian Lopes, Richie Schley, and Tim Commerford of Rage against the Machine, W4L continues to grow and change lives. These public figures are helping W4L get some great worldwide attention to promote the charity, while creating a butterfly effect that is inspiring people from around the world to do the same.
“The Wheels4Life charity provides free bicycles to people in need of transportation in third world countries. They partner with local individuals, community groups, churches and other groups to help them identify persons who sincerely need a bicycle as a way to get to school, work, or even hospitals which can be many miles away. Having a bike can make all the difference when someone needs to break out of the vicious cycle of poverty. The gift of mobility through a bike can do miracles. One bike can serve as a blessing to a family whose doctor or nurse can now reach them in time to save a life.”
- Wheels4Life.org website
By giving bikes rather than food, water, or medication, people in a community become self-sufficient and sustain each other throughout their community. Pairing traditional charity efforts with bikes, however, can have a truly transformative effect. Along with other projects around the world, W4L is working to get bicycles delivered to Neko Tech Center’s Health Care Project in Ghana. Neko Tech will reach out to villages and help educate residents on a number of issues and teach them valuable principles in economics, healthcare, HIV prevention and family planning, along with core skills for environmental and agricultural planning. This kind of integrated work that extends well beyond two wheels is a large part of how W4L helps transform communities worldwide.
We were lucky enough to talk with founder of Wheels4Life, Hans Rey and ask him a few questions about his charity and life changing non-profit.
I’m sure you have life changing stories that all started with someone receiving a bike. Do you have a favorite that you’d like to share with the readers?
Hans:
When we were out in Tanzania for a second time on our film project, and we had a certain amount of bikes to hand out. On our way to meet some of the suggested recipients, we ran into this widow with two young children who lived in a very simple mud hut. She blessed us and was so happy to see us and to help her community. After further questions, we asked whether she could benefit of a bike as well, and she told us she could use one for many reasons. She had to fetch water daily for her family from the well that was a couple miles away; she also trekked regularly to the mountains a few miles further away, where she burned bushes to make charcoal that she then had to transport to the market where she would receive approximately $1 per bag. After all this labor, she often she would come home too late to provide her young kids with a meal. She cried tears of joy when we told her she would get a bike too. When I came back 6 months later, I saw her again and she proudly told us how her life had improved and she showed us also how she also had modified the bike to carry the water containers and to load it with her bags full of charcoal.
Tanzania has been blessed with 210 bikes from W4L; it has changed, improved, enhanced or even saved, more than double that number. Why was Tanzania so fortunate in getting so many bicycles?
Hans:
Well, Tanzania got blessed by chance. For one, we had quite a lot of applications from there. Secondly, it was the place where we filmed our “Wheels 4 Villages” film, which should be finished this winter. We went there three times over the course of a year and filmed the impact that the bikes had on the people and communities in and around the North Pare Mountains.
Tim Commerford, of Rage Against the Machine, rode for your charity this summer. What kind of coverage did that give to W4L?
Hans:
Tim has been a loyal supporter of W4L from the beginning. On top of writing us a check every single year, which is super kind, this past year he listed us as his charity of choice when he competed with Team Surfing USA in the Race Across America bike race. Any help is much appreciated from our rather small charity, but that kind of awareness is remarkable.
What made you want to start this Charity?
Hans:
I wanted to give something back to the world. Cycling has been great to me and I have been lucky to make a living from my hobby for years. In my travels, I have visited many third world countries and have seen how bikes are used and viewed very differently there, and also how important mobility and transportation are. Having a bike can make all the difference in somebody’s life. When I did a self-improvement seminar with an organization called Landmark Education in 2004, I was asked to do a community project as part of the course; little did I know that it would turn into an ongoing global project!
If W4L had to give out an MVP award, who would get it?
Hans:
Easily my wife, Carmen.
What separates W4L from other bike charities?
Hans:
I think our general mission is similar, but there are different ways to go about it. For us, its important to inspire people on the giving and receiving end, as well as to do quality projects, where the bikes not only reach the right and most deserving people, but where they will be appreciated and used. It’s a bit more about the quality than the quantity.
Apart from helping get even more underprivileged people on bikes, what goals does W4L hope to achieve in the future?
Hans:
We want to have a positive impact on as many people as can benefit from a bicycle. We also want to expand more into helping set up bike shops and service stations. A bike shop will provide jobs, and the bikes will last longer if they are properly maintained and the mechanics have access to spare parts.
But I also want the regular people and kids back home to build faith in a charity like ours and to make them understand that it is not always up to the Bill Gates’ of this world to make a difference. Everybody can and should contribute—and it doesn’t always have to include opening their wallet. I often suggest to people to clean out their garage/ toys and sell them on eBay or at garage sale; they can then donate that money while recycling their goods and cleaning their own house of junk.
If you would like to help make a difference, please visit www.Wheels4Life.org today. $150 can purchase and deliver a bicycle to someone in desperate need of transportation, but any amount is welcome. Please help give the lifeline that a bicycle can provide.
