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Empowerment in the eyes of the beholder
Anna Rocoski - March 9, 2010 - Ottawa
un-named fame
Blog Link: Empowerment in the eyes of the beholder
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To receive up to date information on Bicycles for Humanity the Ottawa chapter, check out the webpage [http://www.bicycles-for-humanity.org/Ottawa] and be sure to sign up for their email subscription!
Take a gander over the discussion we had!
Q. How did you two originally meet?
A. Gattola: “Seb and I have known each other since 1997. We’re both from Montreal, we met in Montreal and we came to know each other through work colleagues. I ended up moving here and shortly thereafter Seb moved here as well. Our friendship just blossomed through the years and we always felt so fortunate. That’s how we came to say ‘Well, it’s time we gave back’ and that’s how our search has led us to Bicycles for Humanity. That’s our story. We used to commute from Montreal to Ottawa together and through the years got to know each other and became really good friends and thought ‘Why not? Let’s give this a shot!’’
Q. What originally got you interested in restoring bicycles to provide sustainable transportation to communities in need?
A. Oran: “Sandra and I were looking for something to do to give back to the community somehow. In one May there was an article we read in the Ottawa citizen about how a bike can make a difference in an African child’s life. That started the idea and [by] doing some internet research we found Bicycles for Humanity which actually started in 2005 by a man in British Columbia, Pat Montani. After talking to him we decided ‘Why buy one bike when we can empower an entire community in Ottawa and Gatineau to help another community in Africa?’ So we started Bicycles for Humanity the Ottawa chapter. Essentially every year we have a goal of doing at least one container which is called a Bicycle Empowerment Centre (BEC), 400 bikes, mountain bikes plus spare parts and tools and whatever else the community needs. We collect those, we raise the funds to ship them and our entire container goes over there. The container becomes a building, which becomes a bicycle workshop. Four to five people are trained and they get trained for four weeks on bicycle mechanics. Some of the bikes are given to orphans for schooling and some of the bikes are given to health care workers. Than the rest are fixed up and sold. The proceeds go right back into the project that the community is working on. It’s all sustainable this way. We create employment, we give access to transportation and we do it again every year.”
Q. On the Bicycles for Humanity webpage the main slogan that is first visible is ‘a bike can change a life,’ how is this statement relevant? How can a bicycle change a person’s life?
A. Oran: “Here in North America or the western world we ride bikes for pleasure. Some of us (not us) ride to commute and actually use [a bike as a form of] transportation. But in other parts of the world where people rely on their feet to get from place to place, in rural Africa specifically, there’s no option you can only go to where you can walk to and that limits your capabilities in terms of getting to a doctor, to getting to a school, to getting into work. Give someone a simple affordable bicycle and all of a sudden people are mobile. People are getting to jobs that are further away, they can get to medical care and they can go to school. It starts to develop the community economically. That’s how we say ‘a bike can change a life.’ It can improve a life and in some cases it [can] save [a] life.”
Q. What is the best part about providing bicycles to the people in need?
A. Gattola: “The sheer joy that is gives. Seb and I had the pleasure to go there 2008 and just to see their faces and actually see these bicycles and how their using them. I don’t know it’s just incredible, the feeling that it gives and it really does change their lives and they are really, really grateful for it.”
Oran: “When we went, we went to visit our first container, it had been six months since it had been on the ground and operating, we had seen many pictures because we work with partners over there and we get pictures from them. When we got to that scene it took us 42 hours travelling in the air and in the air ports and nine hours by car to get to the border of Angola and Namibia. We saw that scene and it was just as if we were thrown into the middle of the pictures because it felt so familiar. What was amazing is that we saw with our own eyes that with the income they generated by running a bike shop they were able to build their first cement building that’s housing a classroom on one side and a lounge for the teachers that come from 10km away so they can stay overnight. This is really cool for us to see. The other cool thing is its amazing and very rewarding that halfway across the world you can help. It’s just two people orchestrating [an activity] in the community. You don’t have to be big to help. We get a real big kick out of engaging the community here.
Gattola: “Just meeting all kinds of different people. You hear so much negativity [it can make] you become cynical and think there are no good people out there. There are. There are tons [of good people] and that’s what really brought it to the forefront. There are so many good people. We’re meeting all these amazing people and without the community we couldn’t do this. We’re just the catalysts. Without everybody else’s participation we wouldn’t have been possible. It’s the joy of seeing what a bicycle does and the joy that we have here at home of meeting all these amazing people.
Q. What is the most unique donation you have received?
A. Oran: “They’re very heartwarming [stories]. We actually have a lot. Our very first year a family contacted us they are from South Africa and they immigrated to Canada 20 years ago. When they immigrated [to Canada] they brought all they’re mountain bikes with them. [The bikes] weren’t really being used but they couldn’t really part with them. When they read about our program they thought what a fitting way for [they’re] bikes to go back home to serve the rest of their useful lives helping people. They had a family meeting and they discussed, ‘Is this what we want to do with the bikes?’ and they showed up on loading day with their four bikes to hand them over.”
“There was another lady. I communicated with her for two years. She wanted to give us her bike but she wasn’t quite ready to give it up. She’d write to me ‘That’s it I’m bringing it next weekend,’ that weekend would come and [she would say] ‘Oh, I’m not ready.’ This went on for two years! Finally, she was ready. She painted her bike, she paid to have it all fixed up and we went to go pick it up and she said goodbye to her bicycle. She’s had it for forty years! But her bike is now being used by a student. There’s tons of bike stories like that. A lot of emotional [stories].”
“There [are] stories about people riding their bikes for decades and then you have stories that are sad and very heartwarming stories. Last year a women, she lives an hour away from Ottawa, found out about us. Her son was an avid cyclist. He passed away two years ago in [his] thirties. She had been keeping his bike as a memory and she thought ‘He would have absolutely loved the idea that his bike would serve as a purpose.’ So she drove an hour in to give me her bike, very emotional. It was a top of the line mountain bike and she was just so happy that finally she could put this to rest.”
Gattola: “Two years back we were at the Rideau Canal festival and we were collecting bicycles on site and this older gentleman rode his bike to confederation park and he came to see me and said ‘Is this the place?’ and I said ‘Absolutely’ and he dismounted his bike and he kind of brought it into the container and gave the seat a punch and said ‘You take care of my girl.’ He had taken it from England to Canada. He had it since he was a boy and it was still in amazing condition. He had obviously taken good care of it and loved it. And it was just like he was parting with an old friend.”
For more donation stories check out Bicycles for Humanity Facebook page under the Notes section
Q. Have you done any bicycle touring?
A. Oran: “People are usually surprised to find out that we are not cyclists but it doesn’t matter to us. [A bicycle] is a tool of empowerment. That’s all a bicycle is. It could be a book, it could be a pencil. In this case it’s a bicycle. Pencils would have been easier to ship.”
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