Q Tell us about the collection.
A It’s called Bicycles for Humanity Bike Collection. It’s on 9/17 12-6 at the RPI Student Union and 9/18 4-7 at our new fraternity house, the church at 82 3rd St. in Troy. I think it will just be those two main days where we will actively have a presence at the locations, however, anyone can email me (communityservice@taunufiji.com) to make special arrangements for any time in the near future. I will make myself available to collect bikes until we have the amount we need to send the container over.
Q What is this effort and why is FIJI getting involved with this effort?
A B4H is a grassroots movement to help empower people in underdeveloped communities by solving the basic problem of mobility. Bikes help children gain access to education, mothers to clean water, and health care workers to more patients. I wanted to get involved because I wanted to bring diverse events to the fraternity chapter. This is a great event in that we get to both act with the local community that we will soon be living with and have international impacts.
Q Has the fraternity done this initiative before?
A No, this is our first time with B4H.
Q Who can participate in this collection?
A Anyone who has an underused bike that could be put to better use that they would be willing to donate to support the cause.
Q Where will the donated bikes go? This shipment will be going to a community in South Africa. The shipping container that transports the bikes gets transformed into a Bicycle Empowerment Center. The BEC is fully stocked with tools, spare parts, and information related to bike repair, and acts as a bicycle repair shop. This way the project both empowers the community with mobility and a means to maintain it.
--Danielle Sanzone
No comments:
Post a Comment