Bikes Not Bombs

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Bikes Not Bombs is a Boston, Massachusetts based bicycle project which recycles donated bicycles, trains young people to fix their own bikes and become employable mechanics[1] and sends thousands of refurbished bikes to communities in countries such as South Africa, Ghana, and Guatemala. The organization was founded in 1984 by Carl Kurz, an anti-nuclear activist and Mira Brown, co-founder of Food Not Bombs, who sent bicycles and bicycle parts to Nicaragua to support the revolutionary Sandinista regime and resist the U.S. trade embargo against Nicaragua in effect at the time.[2]

Since that time, Bikes Not Bombs has sent bicycles and parts to Central America, Africa, the Caribbean, and to cities in the United States to set up bicycle workshops and public bicycle share programs, now totaling over 50,000 bicycles. Both bicycles and bicycle parts are also sent abroad to support organizations that build pedal-powered machinery (bicitecnologia) for indigenous peoples, including grain mills, concrete vibrators, and machines for pumping water and depulping coffee that use no electricity.[3][4] The organization remains devoted to political activism in support of its goals:

See also

References

  1. Cervantes, Esther. "Earn-a-Bike in Africa." Dollars & Sense. Mar./Apr. 2005: 6. Proquest. Web. 2 Feb. 2010
  2. McHenry, Keith, Cooking For Peace With Food Not Bombs: Projects of Food Not Bombs, Arroyo Seco, NM: Food Not Bombs, p. 111
  3. "Guatemalan Indigenous Pedal their Way to Mechanization, NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs, 23 Jun. 2005, retrieved 2 February 2010
  4. Halpern, Sue, Cycles of change: a group of urban kids has a two-wheeled strategy to reduce oil consumption while offering the world a different vision of America, Mother Jones Magazine, Mar.-Apr. 2002, retrieved 2 Feb. 2010

External links

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