Design Responses > About Schemes > Bicycle Advocacy & Community >
Wheels4Life

“For some people a bicycle can mean survival”.

Wheels4Life is a charity set up by world mountain bike and trials champion, Hans Rey, to make bikes available to kids for whom the only other option of daily transport is walking great distances.

The objective is to provide free bicycles for people in need of transportation in Third World countries. The team partner with local individuals, organizations and other groups to help identify persons who sincerely need a bike to be able to go to school or to work. Often these people live in very primitive and remote areas with no access or means to public transportation. The closest school, doctor or work-place might be 10 or 20 miles away. Having a bike can make all the difference in somebody’s life and can give them a chance to break out of the poverty cycle.

Hans Rey has been a professional athlete for 20 years, he still travels the world promoting biking and riding the unridable. He has been competing and demonstrating his talents in 60 countries, in recent years he has been filming documentaries with his 'Hans Rey Adventure Team', combining his extreme biking skills with different cultures, always in search of something historical or mysterious.

Wheels4Life is Hans's way of giving something back to the people he has met on his journeys; Hans remains grateful for the opportunities and career he had through the sport.

The initiative works to keep administrative costs and overheads as low as possible, in order to buy more bikes. 90-95% of the funds received go towards buying bikes. Everybody in the charity works on a volunteer level for free. Hans Rey pays for all his charity related travel expenses out of his own pocket.

Often the bicycles are bought in the country where they are needed. That helps the local economy and it makes it much easier to find replacement parts. It also saves us substantial costs in shipping, handling, import taxes, duties, storage, etc.

Useful References
www.wheels4life.org
www.worldbicyclerelief.org