Cycling is Such a Great Idea – But can Everybody Have a Bike

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Today’s post for our Giving Back Series comes to us from our good friend Narayana Reddy aka Nani.  Nani has the biggest heart of anyone we know and it is an honor to call him our friend.  Whenever we speak with him, we are inspired to become better human beings.  He is always there to give anyone a helping hand and is never too busy to assist a person in need.  People hold him in such high regard that they named our a cycling group after him ReddyRiders.

An activist, advocate and founder of the charity Bicycles Crossing Borders, Nani is a true humanitarian.  His compassion is contagious and I am sure that his cause and words will move everyone to give more to people in need.

It is so fitting that we are posting this article as we fly away to India, Nani’s homeland.  He can inspire us even as we leave to the other side of the world.

Cycling is Such a Great Idea – But Can Everybody Have a Bike!!!

Cycling is such a great utilitarian activity many of us take it for granted. And there are people that have one or two bicycles for each different kind of activity. A commuter to get to work and run errands, a road or racing bike for the weekend pleasure rides, a bike for touring, and oh… did I mention a bike for all the off-road bushwhacking.

Many of us are so fortunate, living in an affluent society like Europe or North America, to find so many bicycle stores and other suppliers of bicycles in every neighbourhood. Yet we fail to realize how lucky we are to be  able to buy a bike for under two week salary or for the cost of five or six months of transit passes.

Ever since my childhood, I used to think that a simple two wheeler can be an equitable possession for all the people around the world. Unfortunately it is not. Many of us simply don’t know how hard it can be for a person living in most parts of the third world to have access to a simple two wheeler. People who earn about one-tenth of our hourly wages in a whole week will have to pay the same price as we do to buy the same bike in their places. It is simply not fair.

Here comes “Bicycles Crossing Borders – Bicicletas Cruzando Fronteras” (BCB)

So, in an effort to do a small part to rectify the injustice, in the year 2000 a small number of us gathered into a small organization, had a meeting, brainstormed and founded the BCB and had this organization incorporated. It was a lot of work particularly for me. With some hard work, we got enough funding to kick start the project. We were also very lucky to get a free warehouse to collect and store the bicycles. It was pretty easy through all my contacts to get into an agreement with the most powerful local organization in Havana, Cuba the “Office of the Historian of the City of Havana” to help set up a bike shop, train the people and provide the necessary services to the cyclists of Havana. Thus was a small part of my dream realized.

It would be great to help all the poor people in the world. But we are a realistic bunch and are aware that it is an impossible task. However, we are open to help others to start up their own projects, and in fact offer help a small group of people from Sierra Leone.

Cuba was our chosen land, since I had lived there and have made the necessary contacts and it is a place, with little or no corruption to deal with. Bureaucrats are very pleasant, easy to meet and deal with.

January of 2001

In that month our project site was inaugurated in Old Havana by the Canadian Ambassador. It was a grand store in the prominent historical building, which once used to be a cigar factory. Marble flooring, a bronze statue in the middle of the hallway and big windows and our project had almost 500 sq. Meters of space.

It is sad that in Toronto on any given day, we can see bikes being discarded in the trash, or rusting in people’s backyards or just thrown into other kinds of waste-streams. It is extremely sad that such a thing should happen to a useful item, when one can have them repaired or just give it to some poor soul that does not have the means to buy one.

Through living in many places of the Southern Hemisphere I have made many personal experiences and seen the hardships people face to move from place to place in overcrowded pick-up trucks or minivans, or just cramped between their goats, chicken and other livestock. And I find it deplorable that people in our societies have lost the value for useful material.

In many countries, due to lack of sufficient schools even very young kids walk long distances to schools. My own experience was of walking a distance of upto 5 Kms each way to schools right from grade one. Owning a bicycle in our family was unheard of. We only knew walking everywhere, to run errands, to the local market, to the far and few medical dispensaries (as small clinics were called those days) and other places. Of course there was a local transit, but who could afford it.

My experience of living in Cuba in the middle of the worst economic crisis of that land from 1991 to 1993 called ‘Periodo Especial’, a land that has been made to suffer already through an unjust US blockade since the revolution, opened my senses to more issues and problems that one people can face not entirely due to their own making.

During those years in Cuba, people would wait for hours and hours for the very few functioning buses to get to work, to visit family or whatever. Even if they would manage to board an overcrowded bus, it was never assured that they would arrive at the destination. The buses constantly broke down and caused unlimited pollution.

Cheap Chinese made bikes, the Flyeing Pigeon etc., distributed to the people at a cost of $4 and $6, paid in installments would break down on their very maiden voyage. It was very hard to get them repaired. There were simply no spare parts or skills available.

Re-Use instead of discard

BCB’s idea is to lower the number of bikes ending up in the waste stream. We like to collect them instead and ship them down to Cuba and other places. This will easily cut down our over-burdened landfill sites and cut down the toxic materials getting into our water-table.

Many organizations have been shipping bikes to Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean etc. In Cuba I have been asked by many officials, why some organizations ship useless and rusty irreparable bicycles, which they end up having to discard into scrap metal.  This is a sad situation. One has to understand that “if we cannot repair something here, they cannot be repaired in other places”, in Cuba or wherever. The main reason being, that there are no bicycle repair shops and spare parts and appropriate tools are simply not available.

Bicycles Crossing Borders differs from others

At BCB we believe strongly in empowering the local people. Our goal is to “not only provide them with repairable bicycles, but also the skills, tools and parts to repair them”. They can be independent one day only by this means. Otherwise we will only create a total dependency – not a good cause after eliminating colonialism.

I am always very proud to tell people of our successes. But success does not come easily. This success comes thanks to our volunteer force, who are always ready to come out and help with the collection of bicycles and shipping and other work. Our volunteer friends and I are always proud to say also that we spend very little money on managing the project in Canada. We don’t have any staff, office etc., and all the work is accomplished by our volunteers using virtual means.

Over four years, in our first “Bicycle Repair and Service Facility” in Old Havana:

• we trained 22 women and 9 men in bicycle technology
• we shipped 7000 bicycles
• we shipped almost 4000 boxes of new and used parts
• our project site included one master mechanic work bench and
• four service stations
• tools worth over $20,000 were supplied

Among our other achievements:

• bicycles were distributed to all the local postal workers in Old Havana
• 100 good quality bicycles were dedicated for renting out, so the local shop could achieve financial independence
• our shop in Old Havana also stored and serviced bicycles for one Spanish and one German tourism companies, thus generating revenues

The Bicycles Crossing Borders starts a second phase of the project

The BCB would like to draw on the successes of the first phase, learn from the mistakes made and establish a similar but expanded project in a smaller city. By setting up such a project BCB hopes to be of greater service to the rural public.

Per capita cyclists in rural areas of Cuba far exceed those Havana. Almost 70% of the people seem to use bicycles as their principle mode of commuting. At present the rural folk in Cuba do not have any access to bicycle repairs or parts necessary for repairs. At the same time there is a lack of knowledge, tools and expertise to carry out such tasks. The first bicycle shop set up by BCB happens to be the only full-fledged bicycle repair and service shop in Cuba.

But Cubans do feel the challenges of going all the way to Havana for service or parts. Yet some Cuban service technicians do come to Havana from as far away as Bayamos to pick up parts at the BCB shop once every three months.

There is a need for a bicycle service and repair shop in smaller towns:

Each time I see a cyclist in Cuba struggling with the load on the bike, in the heat and up the hill, it disturbs me and I want to do whatever I can to help out. Worse even and I feel heart-broken when I see horses used in smaller towns to haul people instead of the engines of a bus, and these horses are malnourished and the owners beat them to run faster. It is just painful.

For the past two years, our group at BCB is working hard to set-up a central repair and service facility in Baracoa, Province of Guantanamo in early 2010. Guantanamo City, Bayamos could be next. At a later date, there will be also a “mobile workshop” that can visit outlying towns and villages on set dates, which will be announced by radio and other print media. A parcel delivery van will be converted to carry parts and tools and a couple of mechanics can visit a set number of villages on a regular basis. This would provide the badly needed support to the rural folk in terms of repair and service, that they can otherwise not get anywhere.

Project Scope:

A dedicated building in Baracoa will be renovated and the shop set up there. Potential candidates will be selected and trained in bicycle technology by local experts, who will be drawn from our previously trained and experienced technicians. By the fall of 2010 our new shop in Baracoa will be serving as many cyclists as possible.

“Volunteer Builders” an NGO from Oakville, Ontario have joined forces with BCB. Both of our groups hope to go down to Cuba with about 30 volunteers to help renovate and rebuild the dedicated building within about two weeks into a “modern bicycle repair facility”.

Environmental impact in Canada:

A project involving recycling bicycles has twofold effects on the environment in Canada and thus in accordance of the Kyoto Protocol. Each time a bicycle is recycled substantial amount of metal and poisonous items are removed from the trash. At the same time, it is proven that each bicycle added to the roads of Canada reduces GHGs by an average of 4 metric Tonnes per year, if only the cyclist commutes an average of 5 Km each way to work daily.

Environmental Impact in Southern Countries:

One of the main goals of BCB is to remove bicycles going into the waste stream as much as possible. Our goal is also to help the impoverished people elsewhere with a better means of commuting, thus contributing to the reduction of GHGs. However, it is also an important factor in alleviating poverty by means of creating employment. BCB aims to provide skills in a field totally ignored otherwise, thus providing better opportunities for employment and increase sustainability, productivity etc.

Challenges of the project:

If only BCB had the full power, we could achieve more. But, like everything else, it is only human to err. And we have learned from our mistakes and we like to move on to provide better projects wherever we can.

One of our greatest challenges have become getting the funding. I get emails on a daily basis from people from across Canada and occasionally from even the US offering us the bicycles. But not many people offer us the money. We need money, money to buy tools, to support the volunteers that come out to help for an entire day sometimes. Offering them lunch is the least thing we could do. And unfortunately for us, the shipping gets more expensive all the time. Cuban ships don’t come to Toronto anymore and thus we have to ship the containers to Halifax. The road freight alone is expensive. Just imagine paying almost $6000 for a 40’ container.

CIDA could help small projects like ours. But no, they like to help bigger projects in other places. And their conditions are out of this world. And of course some of our biggest supporters, the trade unions are weaker these days, thanks to the conservative politics of Canada.

I find it also very interesting, that I can get free storage space for collected bicycles in Amsterdam, Berlin or Chicago (notice the a b and c of the cities). Many of my friends in those cities have offered me to move there and work out of there. But Toronto is my home and it has been proven very hard to find a free storage space in our great city.

Can somebody out there please help us. Please help us with funds and help us find a space close to the local transit, here in Toronto, so that I and my friends who are mostly cyclists can get there easily at all hours and any weather condition.

Social benefits:

If past experience is any proof, we hope to draw on the successes. Most definitively there will be

• better awareness of the environment, the reduction of  the  GHGs  and the need for better use of bicycles, if we can effectively install a project and achieve our goals.
• Direct benefits to the project would be that several highly skilled professionals will emerge in a field, hitherto totally ignored by the society.
• Indirectly, some of the people that do undergo training may leave to establish their own shops elsewhere to service the cyclists.
• As with our past experience, there can be satellite and subsidiary sectors involved in providing service to the project and the public, thus gaining an economic sufficiency.

Supporters and Patrons of BCB:

BCB has had generous support from several sectors of Canadian society. During the past several trade unions and businesses have offered strong support to the project. Many individuals have supported us with money, free time and moral support.

The prominent trade unions that have pledged their continued support are: United Food and Commercial Workers of Canada, Communication, Energy and Paper Workers Union.

Among the businesses the Urbane Cyclist – a Workers’ Cooperative of Toronto have been our strongest supporters since the beginning. Others that have come up with sporadic support are Duke’s Cycles and various others. Bayview Cycle have collected bicycles for us. Canadian Tire stores at Keel and St. Clair have helped us by providing tools at their cost prices. In the recent years my employer the Mountain Equipment Cooperative has provided with donations of returned and other material. There have been many individual donors and highly skilled volunteers, who have pledged their continuous support.

Our recent collaborators, the Volunteer Builders are very enthusiastic and show tremendous energy to go to Cuba and help us renovate the building in Baracoa. Now all we need is sufficient funds and many of the material for the reconstruction of the project site in Baracoa, the tools and parts for the bicycle shop and training of people.

But it will be totally fruitless, if I end this without acknowledging the support I have received over the years from all the volunteers, many of whom have become my dearest friends. Without their physical and moral support, the project would not be where it is today. These are the greatest volunteers I have seen in my NGO years of the past 25 years in Toronto.

• To find out more about Bicycles Crossing Borders visit their website at http://www.bikestocuba.org/
• To see how you can get more involved email Nani at chittar99@yahoo.com
• To donate  send a cheque payable to:
• Bicycles Crossing Borders
  c/o Urbane Cyclist,
  180 John Street, Toronto, ON M5T 1X5

I was Born in Bangalore, India. Was skillful in languages and mechanics from a very early age and always wanted to be an engineer. So, I learned German and was fluent in it pretty fast, like I was fluent in Hindi, Urdu etc., besides my mother tongue Telugu and our provincial language Kannada.
Went to Germany at an early age and studied engineering in Berlin. While living there also worked in a couple of companies and traveled, mainly ‘hitch-hiking’ to many parts of Europe and even to risky areas such as the Basque region. Later, fulfilled my passion for the Maya and Inka cultures by traveling extensively in Central America and many parts of South America. Also, gained and learned a lot by living voluntarily in parts of Guatemala, Nicaragua where I was always among the peasant folk and worked on projects. Also gained some real life experience living in a rain forest in Costa Rica for six months. Later, I spent two years in Havana, Cuba and worked with some of the best Cuban designers and helped them with Graphic design on Macintosh computers.
Cycling and working with bicycles has always been a passion. Also design pedal powered machinery. But most of all, it has been my ambition and a passion to empower people in whatever fields that I am competent in. In Toronto I have been working on bikes quite a lot and also do a lot of charitable repair work for those that cannot afford it.

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