Bikes2Gambia
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Hackney’s Volunteer Police Cadets are steering clear of involvement in crime and gangs, developing skills and helping others in their own communities and further afield, through repairing bicycles to send to Gambian orphanages, sports coaching and running activities for local young people.
Who we are
Hackney Volunteer Police Cadets. Over 120 young people are involved.
Where we're based
Hackney, London
When we started
October 2008
How we started
The project was initially set up to address alarming figures around Hackney gang and crime issues whilst also delivering second hand bicycles to HIV orphanages in The Gambia. The project team stated that that youth in Hackney did not feel safe to freely migrate from postcode to postcode because of fear of gang attacks. The project aimed at breaking down postcode stigmas not only in Hackney but all over the UK.
Our work
Since October 2008 the Bikes2Gambia Project Team have fixed and donated over 270 bikes, to date. 70 of these bicycles have been sent to HIV orphanages in The Gambia, Tanzania and Kenya. Through doing this the team have achieved bike maintenance qualifications. The other 200 bikes have been donated to local youth organisations and charities.
During the projects the team have worked with community groups and estates across London and parts of the United Kingdom, reaching as far as Glasgow where they played a cricket match against a Muslim Community group from there.
In order to affectively engage with other youth the team have been acquiring sports coaching badges so that they can effectively run sports work shops and competitions of which they have now participated and run in excess of 50 of these style schemes over the last two years.
The team have volunteered at over 75 community projects, where they have carried out gardening projects, marshalling and supporting supervisors in these events.
The project team continually address issues on a local and global scale. All over London they have been giving presentations on crime prevention, sexual education, Child Labour and sex trafficking.
Future plans
The aim of the project now is for the team to replicate the workshops that they have done in the UK with the indigenous youth in The Gambia in April 2011, funding permitting, and upon return to continue all the community workshops and presentations addressing Child Labour issues and promoting education as one of the fundamental ways of breaking the cycle of poverty.
It's that feeling that because of you, someone is having a better day.
Zakariya Ahmed
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