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news
Imogen Pettitt (image via Bristol Bike Project)Bristol Bike Project delivers bikes to Calais refugee camp
Earlier this month we reported on a Critical Mass ride which saw 150 cyclists ride from London to donate bikes to migrants living in the Calais refugee camp known as the Jungle. This week, Imogen Pettitt has written on the Bristol Bike Project website having also delivered bikes there.
Pettitt explains that she was inspired to take bikes after she saw the impact of the camp being moved 7km out of town earlier in the year.
“It was only because I was looking for them that I saw the hundreds of tents, hidden in the sand dunes. It hit me then that they were miles away from anything they would need to improve their situation, miles from the charities and offices they’d need if they wanted to do the paperwork for an asylum claim, miles from medical help, miles from public phones/sim card shops, food shops, anything. The constant walking would get exhausting.”
Pettitt subsequently approached The Bristol Bike Project for bikes and tools to take down in her van.
The long-standing project aims to provide free bikes to people who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to own one. This has typically been within the city, where unwanted bikes that would most likely end up in landfill are made roadworthy again via the project's ‘Earn-A-Bike Workshops’. Individuals work alongside a mechanic to refurbish a donated bike, learning basic mechanical skills in the process.
The organisation is currently accepting donations of bikes, parts or tools (but not clothes or bedding) ahead of another trip to Calais in October. Anyone who can contribute is asked to bring what they can to its premises at 7 City Road.
After making her trip to the camp, Pettitt said:
“I’d build them a house if I could but I am not a builder. I’d lobby the government but I don’t know how. I remember how exhausting it was walking everywhere with my young son and how much easier life became when I got a bike. There are so many obstacles stacked in front of these people – inadequate shelter, language barriers, trauma, insufficient medical attention and sanitation, forcing people to walk 7k in and out of town whenever they have a hoop to jump through is just cruel. A bike is the only bit of freedom I can give these refugees and I give it wholeheartedly.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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8 comments
Totally misplaced generosity. These people should not be given anything. There are far more deserving causes within the UK that could do with these bicycles.
Most are probably nicked anyway.
If I had to walk a 5 mile roundtrip a day to get provisions or services, I'd love it if someone sorted me out a bicycle. I'm sure many of the people stuck at Calais feel exactly the same. We're not so different.
If one was to go to Calais and ask all these desperate people what they most needed, Id put money on the fact that a bicycle wouldn't be in their top 10. Nice gesture, but you have to question the real value this is bringing to these people.
Agree with both posts there - I hate it when cycling gets dragged into political arguments!
Whatever these people need based on what the BBC showed us 3 days ago it is not bicycles.
If they can build their own nightclub... (yes, a nightclub) then I think they may be more resourceful then Ms Pettitt believes.
Hopefully the authorities had a good look in that van when she returned home.
Meanwhile in blighty, more cyclists are killed in hit and run incidents involving uninsured drivers driven by untrained motorists keen to avoid the attention of the authorities.
It's just political posturing. To be honest the people who think cycling is some sort lefty political thing are a big part of the problem. Ideally cycling and cyclists would be regarded as completely normal and an excellent way to travel shorter distances. Something done by you or your family or friends. Cyclists are ideally not an out-group of either "lycra louts" or crusty beatnicks.
If they want to give bikes to migrants in Calais then fair enough but cycling a bicycle, driving a car, taking a bus or a train is neither left wing or right wing. It's just a bike and a way to get around. I'm sure that some people in the UK who have somewhere to actually go could have made better use of them.
as opposed to making assumptions about strangers on the internet
good for the Bristol people. Who really knows their "real" motiviations, who cares. They're helping other people. People who help one set of people are far more likely to help another set than perhaps people who sit in judgement of them, deciding who is the most worthy. And as the article clearly says, they are already running a project to re-distribute bikes
Quite a depressing post really - generally disparaging of people in need and a noble effort to help them. Doubtless they are as resourceful as anyone else but given the fact they are fleeing war, violence and brutality then I find it hard to understand how you begrudge them a helping hand.
Ms Petit is one of numerous Britons stepping in to fill the woeful void left by our "leaders" inaction and unwillingness to share the burden of this global problem.
Not sure about the non-sequitur regarding cyclists in the UK but it makes about as much sense as the rest of your post.