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Collecting Bicycles For Haiti - You Can Help!
Posted below is a letter to the Montgomery Bicycle Club from Stephanie Reynold, received on 20 March 2009
Members of the Montgomery Bicycle Club:
Perhaps by now some of you have noticed the life-sized, spray-painted bicycles hanging in various locations around Montgomery. In case you have not, check out the following link to see a few photographs of the bikes now hanging around town. HIPHaiti: Breaking the Shackles of Poverty. These bicycles were spray-painted onto sheets of fabric with the use of a handmade stencil that took us over thirty hours to build.
The design of the stencil was provided by Argentinean artist Fernando Traverso. Traverso's work has been featured in several art museums around the world. Originally the stencil was created to raise awareness about kidnappings in Argentina which often occurred to those who spoke out against the nation's dictatorship. Abandoned bicycles were often a sign that a kidnapping had taken place. Traverso now provides a template for the stencil on his website and encourages others to use the stencil for their own causes.
Our organization, Humanitarians Initiating Progress in Haiti, is using the stencil as part of our effort to collect bicycles for our current Fill the Container Project. We are now in the process of collecting relief supplies to fill a shipping container which will be sent this summer to Coco Beach, Haiti. Coco Beach is a remote village on Haiti's northern coast where my family and I helped to start the community's first and only school over seven years ago. Coco Beach is located about a forty-five minute drive from the nearest town and over two and a half hours from Cap Haitian, the nearest city with a hospital. Unfortunately no one in the village owns a vehicle so for the people living in Coco Beach the trip takes even longer. Only a couple of people living there currently have access to a bicycle. Many families in Coco Beach are often separated because men are forced to leave Coco Beach for work in another town to support their families. Bicycles would provide these men with a form of transportation that would allow them to commute to work instead of moving away from their families.
Bicycles would not only be a mode of transportation to and from work on a daily basis but could be used in emergencies to transport people to the nearest medical clinic. One Montgomery designer is currently using his shop to build a bicycle ambulance for the people of Coco Beach. When not used as an ambulance it can be used the transport goods to and from the market. The idea is based on a project implemented in Namibia as described on the following website. Namibian Bicycle Ambulance Project A Montgomery native and former peace corps worker in Namibia is overseeing the project.
The Jeff Davis High School Humanitarian Club has partnered with our organization and is helping us collect supplies for the container. Last month the principal of Jeff Davis agreed to let the Humanitarian Club spray paint twenty-five bicycles around the school, representing the number of bikes they are trying to collect. Several businesses around the community (The Brew Pub and Stonehenge Gallery among others...) have also hung images of our bicycles to spread the word about our current collection efforts. People have been very enthusiastic about the project but unfortunately that enthusiasm has not brought us many bicycles.
I cannot think of a group of individuals in our community more enthusiastic about bicycles than yours. Perhaps some of you have old bicycles that you no longer use and would be willing to donate for the people of Coco Beach, Haiti.
For more information about our organization and the work we are doing in Haiti, visit our website HIPHaiti: Breaking the Shackles of Poverty.
Thanks for your help!
Stephanie Reynolds
HIPHaiti
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