South African Students Grow Trees In Exchange For Bikes

As people around the globe prepare to celebrate Earth Day April 22, 2012 World Bicycle Relief is thrilled to share our newest program and partnership with two leading South African non-profit organizations, Qhubeka and the Wildlands Conservation Trust. This partnership builds on Qhubeka's and Wildlands' innovative Trees-for-Bikes and Trash-for-Bikes programs which stress a "hand-up not hand-out" approach. In the Trees-for-Bikes program, a child can earn a bicycle by planting and nurturing 150 saplings. The bicycle they receive, in exchange for their trees, enables the student to commute to school quickly and safely.  South African high school students have planted hundreds of thousands of trees through this program and Dr. Andrew Venter, Executive Director at Wildlands, believes their work will inspire everyone in South Africa who is committed to making a difference for the environment.

Watch this video and learn more about how students are preserving the environment and earning World Bicycle Relief bicycles in return.

World Bicycle Relief is proud to supply bicycles for this innovative program. Our goal is to distribute 10,000 bicycles through the Trees-for-Bikes and Trash-for-Bikes programs in 2012. Help us reach our goal >

Bicycles utilized for the Trees-for-Bikes and Trash-for-Bikes programs are assembled in our newest facility in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Learn the story of our Zulu women assemblers in this short video.