This past winter, we partnered with Sylvia Delainey who was organising a container of donated equipment for a school in Tanzania. Among the things going were a couple of dozen donated bicycles of varying quality and condition. We partnered with her to tune the bicycles, and we donated and installed 50 thick thorn-resistant tubes for the 25 bicycles (see the picture gallery to get a better idea of how easy it would be to get a flat tire on their roads!). Sylvia recently dropped by with a thank you card from the students in Africa, and some interesting feedback. The bicycles were among the most popular things in the container (with only sports equipment, such as soccer balls, comparing in the excitement they generated). Their school is a very long walk from the nearest town, and having bicycles to do that trek is a huge quality of life improvement for the students.

Because container space is at such a premium, the container is carefully loaded over the course of a couple of days, so that every square centimetre is maximised. It’s quite an impressive process, and I must say I learned a lot being a part of it.

A big thank you to Sylvia for doing the hard work in organising the container, and to Grant and Steve D. for volunteering to work on the bikes over two days.

–Steven H.