Africa donation bike container #4 was loaded this weekend in Virginia

Yep, you read right, our fourth Africa donation bike container was loaded this weekend in the far off land of Alexandria, Virginia. This latest container will ship out to Namibia shortly, and will provide much-needed bikes for our Sister Shop MakVeto Bicycles, in addition to helping replenish community shops that are supported by our esteemed partner Bicycle Empowerment Network, Namibia.

Why Virginia? The donation bikes for this latest effort were collected by another one of our partner organizations, Virginia-based Wheels to Africa. A nonprofit founded in 2005, Wheels to Africa's focus is harnessing the power of local youth in Virginia to collect bikes for donation to Africa. The Mike's Bikes Foundation is covering shipping, ground transport, and customs charges for this latest container.

In addition to the re-supply of MakVeto, we will be supplying a portion of these donated bikes to BEN Namibia. In return, they'll send some of the only expert bike mechanics in the country to stay with Erasmus, Ludwig, and Mukena at MakVeto, and provide in-depth service training to them that our all-too-short visit could not. Stay tuned for more info on this fourth Africa bike container, and the astounding progress that MakVeto is making in the use of bicycle transportation in the Caprivi Region of Namibia.

The strike strikes!

Africa donation bike container #3 has come quite far on its journey from San Rafael, California. As far as Johannesburg, South Africa to be exact. Yet, as we've so often found with our philanthropy projects in Africa, unexpected complications have a habit of tossing a monkey wrench into the gears exactly when you think things are going smoothly.

This time striking South African rail and port workers have stopped the container of 474 bikes in its tracks (so to speak). It's awaiting loading onto rail transit in Jo-burg, in order to head to Mike's Bikes Sister Shop Jonmol Bicycle Services in Gaborone, Botswana. The strike is now in its sixth day, and we're hoping along with Bones and the Jonmol crew that the strike reaches a resolution posthaste. As we've experienced first-hand, the people of Gaborone need bikes!

The story of the loading of our third container of Africa bikes - told in a minute and a half

How to load 474 Bikes on a 40ft. Shipping Container from Mike's Bikes on Vimeo.

(Imagine the theme music to Benny Hill)

Back in March, we loaded 474 bikes generously donated by our customers into a shipping container bound for Gaborone, Botswana. Our third Africa bike container to date, this one is headed to Jonmol Bicycle Services, our first Africa Sister Shop that was established in 2008.

Thanks to the wild success of Jonmol, there are hundreds of people now using bicycles for transportation in Gaborone. The only drawback to getting the bikes out so quickly is that now Jonmol's proprietor Bones is in dire need of another round of affordable bicycles to offer to his community. Once again the customers of Mike's Bikes have stepped up, and this container was packed with more bikes than any we've sent to date!