“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” – Mother Teresa
©Dan Austin: Moment of Happiness in Nepal
Q: How did the idea for 88Bikes come to you?
A: 88bikes was sheer serendipity. My brother and I planned a bike ride in Cambodia. We wanted to give our bikes away to two lucky kids. We located an orphanage, but there were 88 kids, which meant that 86 kids would feel pretty left out! So with the help of our friend Nick, we launched a fundraiser and within 4 days had all the donations we needed. The scene of happiness was so incredible we were hooked. We knew we had to do this again.
Q: How do you decide where the bikes should go?
A: We work to locate partner NGOs in-country, and then identify locations where the bikes will do the greatest amount of good. Typically we select rural locations across the developing world.
©Dan Austin: Dan speaking with local children in Nepal
Q: Can you take us through the journey from “donation to delivery” of a bike to a child or village?
A: Sure! Someone donates a bike, typically via 88bikes.org. We line them up with a bike number. After we’ve selected our endowment locations, we travel in person to each site. We give a card with the sponsor’s picture to the child recipient. On the back is a world map, showing where the sponsor lives and where the child lives. Kids love this! We take a picture of the child with her new bike, holding her sponsor’s picture, and we give this back to the sponsors. Volunteers follow-up with bike repair workshops and apprenticeships.
Q: What kind of response are you getting from the children and villagers who receive bikes?
A: It’s pretty incredible. Kids love their bikes and get the same feeling of freedom, autonomy and happiness that I received when I was a kid with my first bike.
©Dan Austin: A young girl showing a photo of the people who donated a bike for her to ride and enjoy.
Q: Once a bike is on the ground and in use, how do the locals properly maintain their bikes?
A: We bring in volunteers to employ bike mechanics to run workshops to get every kid up to speed on bike repair. Some kids who show a predilection for bike repair are lined up with apprenticeships with local mechanics.
Q: What has been your biggest challenge since launching this project?
A: It’s been a blast. All challenges have been fun wrinkles to figure out.
Q: In what way has this project changed your own life?
A: After starting 88bikes, I felt that my life came into balance. I hadn’t even realized it before, but I’d been wanting to have some sort of outlet for philanthropic work. 88bikes happened, and things seemed to fall into order.
©Dan Austin: A young boy in Nepal receiving his first bike.
Q: What is your ultimate vision for 88Bikes and how can people get involved?
A: We are focused on one child and one sponsor at a time. So, while we’d like to give bikes to as many kids as possible, every step has been a surprise and a blessing and we’re just enjoying the ride. We’d like to set up sustainable bike shops at sites around the world and work with artisan bike manufacturers in-country to get the best possible bikes to the kids.
©Dan Austin
ABOUT DAN AUSTIN
Dan Austin is a writer and filmmaker living in Brooklyn, NY. Dan is best known for his 1999 documentary, True Fans, and for the book True Fans that chronicled his bike journey across America with his brother, Jared and his best friend Clint. A musical version of True Fans is currently in development in New York. Dan is the award-winning director of seven documentaries and author of three books (including the recent “The Road Trip Pilgrims Guide”); conversant in four languages, Dan has explored old paths and new throughout the world. His ‘universal joy principle’ was the inspiration for 88Bikes, and provides the thematic thread for his forthcoming 88bikes documentary. Dan is the inspiration, voice and leader of 88bikes, directing the project and working closely with our partners and bike sponsors to make 88bikes a huge success.
The 88Bikes Foundation has a very simple goal: to provide a sustainable, joyful, empowering form of transportation to young people in developing countries, in situations where these children have been challenged to be their own heroes due to war, conflict, poverty, disease, or other regional hardships. 88Bikes was started in 2006 by Dan Austin, Nicolas Arauz, and Jared Austin. In November 2006, 88Bikes started its first project in partnership with the Friends of Cambodian Children, to raise funds for 88 bikes. After exceeding its fundraising goal in just 2 weeks, the organization gave 88 bikes to 88 kids at the Palm Tree Orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in January 2007. In January of 2008, 88bikes completed its second project with the Global Youth Partnership for Africa in Patongo, Uganda, donating 200 bikes to children at a refugee camp in this war-torn region of Northern Uganda. 88bikes has since added endowment locations in Uganda, Peru, Vietnam, Nepal, India and Ghana. In addition, 88bikes provides the kids with bike maintenance training, safety workshops, group bike rides, and bike-based job skills.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT 88Bikes please visit: http://www.88Bikes.org
