Every Wednesday evening at an empty lot in Wellington's Newtown, two unassuming shipping containers transform into a bustling bike repair workshop.
EkeRua ReBicycle volunteers adjust brakes and replace rusty chains on donated bikes and it’s all in aid of their aim of making cycling accessible.
The grin says it all. Nareem has just picked up his new bike, helmet and lock - all for free - and he is delighted.
Nareem and his wife are recent arrivals from Pakistan, and they don’t have a car or the means to buy a bike themselves.
“Usually when I go to buy groceries, I have a lot of problems. [Now that I’ve got] my push bike, it will be easy to carry my groceries, so I am very excited to get this one. My first vehicle in New Zealand,” Nareem said.
His bike is one of 2000 donated by the community that the charity has fixed up and re-homed to former refugees, families struggling with living costs, and others in need, over the past six years.
The reactions of people picking up their new bikes is one of the rewards that keep EkeRua ReBicycle Chair Hilleke Townsend and the other volunteers turning up each week.
“It means a lot to people to have that transport, or that freedom to be able to travel around, and we’ve had some really heart-felt messages get back to us,” Townsend said.
She has seen the access to opportunities that bikes can provide in peoples’ lives, especially former refugee families.
“We know that when people first come to New Zealand, they often come with nothing more than a suitcase full of clothes. And it takes them a while to get their driver’s license.
"So, it’s really important for kids to be able to get to school, and it’s also important for adults to get to be able to get to language lessons, to start being part of their community.”
EkeRua began with a dozen donated bikes in Townsend’s garage, sourced through a Facebook call out, and fixed-up by friends, and grew from there.
Bikes are now donated by the public through a number of local bike shops, and they recently moved into their new home of two large shipping containers, one of which is full with more than 60 bikes waiting to be up-cycled at any one time.
Giving away their 2000th bike is a significant milestone, and one which Townsend believes to be a world record.
When 1News visited the workshop, there were at least nine mechanics working on a steady stream of bikes, including Stephen Coppard who has been volunteering with EkeRua for five years.
Coppard said that he enjoys the outreach into the community and resurrecting old bikes,
“I feel a sense of fulfilment taking an old bike that someone has discarded and giving it a new lease of life.”
EkeRua has even bigger initiatives afoot. They’ve just been awarded a Waka Kotahi Innovation Fund grant for their Wheel Change e-bike ‘lease to buy’ program to help people on low-incomes access e-bikes – an ideal option for the Wellington wind and hills.
They also run an electric cargo-bike library, so that families can borrow a cargo-bike for a few weeks to test whether it suits their lifestyle before they commit to such a significant purchase.
Townsend thinks that things are looking up for cycling in Wellington.
“The infrastructure in Wellington is really improving and we’re seeing a lot more people riding their bikes around, a lot more parents riding with kids which is amazing to see.”
As well as the obvious climate and sustainability benefits that increased cycling brings to the community, Townsend wants to reduce ‘transport poverty’ - when the cost of transport is a barrier to living a full and happy life.
“Everyone should be able to access work or education, social events, or just be able to run errands without it being a significant burden to them. And when the cost of transport becomes so expensive that you’re having to make sacrifices in other areas of your life, that’s a real problem.”
It’s a problem that Townsend and the EkeRua staff and volunteers are working to change, one up-cycled bike at a time.
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