If you’re having a summer clear out, looking ahead to the kids’ birthdays (or even Christmas… ), or are considering switching from the pushang to an e-bike, then a charity can help by taking your old wheels off your hands.
The Eleanor Foundation is continuing its work with UK charity ‘Re-Cycle’ – having already been responsible for recycling 5,500 bikes in Guernsey.
Those bikes – some of which were damaged or missing parts – have been given a new life in Africa.
The Eleanor Foundation started working with Re-Cycle soon after it launched in 2012, following the death of 22-year-old Eleanor Carey in December 2011.
The charity’s main focus is the provision of basic sanitation in two districts in north west Tanzania, reflecting Miss Carey’s own personal interests.
She was studying International Development at the London Metropolitan University, when she was killed in a collision with a HGV as she cycled near Tower Bridge.
Having launched The Eleanor Foundation in her memory in 2012, Eleanor’s father stumbled across the Re-Cycle website while doing some other research.
Deciding to collect bikes for the UK charity, Allister Carey initially thought 200 bikes was an achievable target for Guernsey.
But the number continued to grow.
By 2026, the Eleanor Foundation has been responsible for shipping around 5,500 bikes out of Guernsey which have been fixed up and sent on to Africa.
In total, in the 25 years since Re-Cycle launched, the charity has sent 200,000 bikes to Africa.
Mr Carey is very proud of Guernsey’s input to this total number.
On top of that, bits of bikes have been collected too.
“They send parts, old inner tubes, even pedals,” Mr Carey said, explaining that while we might throw away something like a punctured inner tube, in Africa it would be patched up and reused multiple times over.
“A bicycle just revolutionises their ability to do things,” he added.
“In rural Africa there is one means of transport, and that’s walking,” he explained. “Everybody does that. The next best thing is a bicycle.”
To donate a bike contact The Eleanor Foundation.
READ MORE…
The October/November issue of CONNECT magazine will feature an extended article on the work of the Eleanor Foundation in memory of Eleanor Carey.
