#817: SHIP YOUR OLD BIKE TO HAITI NOW (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: ITDP <mobility@igc.org>

PRESS RELEASE                             ---FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE---

CONTACT: Paul S. White, The Institute for Transportation and Development
Policy (ITDP)
steely@igc.org;  (212) 629-8001;  www.itdp.org

NYC TEENS LOAD YOUR DONATED BIKES, TOOLS, PARTS & ACCESSORIES INTO SHIP
BOUND FOR HAITIAN YOUTH

HUDSON RIVER GREENWAY, MANHATTAN:  On November 6 & 7  teenage students
from Recycle-A-Bicycle (RAB) projects in the East Village, Williamsburg
and Washington Heights will load hundreds of used and new bicycles,
parts and tools into a ship bound for their ?Sister? youth earn-a-bike
project in Cap Haitien, Haiti.

ALL ARE ENCOURAGED TO PART WITH THEIR UNUSED BICYCLES, PARTS AND TOOLS,
bring them to our loading site, and foster sustainable livelihoods for
hundreds of young Haitians.  ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE.  Donors
will receive a 'thank you' letter suitable for framing.  Bicycle Art
from around the world will be available for purchase (get some holiday
shopping out of the way); proceeds will be used to ship patch kits and
tools.

TIME AND PLACE:  Saturday, November 6th and Sunday, November 7th from
noon to 6pm at the Loading Site: The pier just south of the behemoth
Dept. of Sanitation Gansevoort facility (the one with the tall
smokestacks) on the corner of the Hudson River Greenway (West End
Highway) and Little 12th street.  Come to the blue 'Hanjin' shipping
container directly behind the dog run, which is visible from the
Greenway.

The material will capitalize a new youth bicycle program at St. Esprit
College in Cap Haitien, Haiti's second largest city.  Students at St.
Esprit--teens eager to acquire personal transport and job skills--will
?earn? the bicycles through completing an RAB-inspired curriculum which
teaches bicycle maintenance and repair, small business skills, workbike
fabrication and effective riding techniques.  After the course, which
will be administered by instructors from both the US and Haiti,
enterprising graduates will operate all manner of bicycle-based small
enterprises--mobile vending, delivery, bicycle service and sales.

Haiti, an intensely spiritual land with a compelling and unique history,
is the poorest country in the Americas.  Because most of Haiti's 6
million inhabitants live on less than US$250 per year,  motorized
transport is out of reach for most everyone. Since 1987, the Institute
for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)--the environmental
organization that is sponsoring the project--has sent thousands of
bicycles to Haiti, mostly to rural areas where bicycles are now commonly
used to access vital services and to transport maize, rice, beans and
coffee to local markets.

The project will lead the international development community to earmark
more development dollars to projects that promote utility cycling;
heretofore development professionals, planners and government officials
have not recognized bicycles as a legitimate mode of transport.  The
project will also seek to foster self-sustaining bicycle import concerns
and draw attention to regressive tariff polices that increase the price
of bicycles in Haiti and the Dominican Republic by as much as 70%.

---END
--
Paul Steely White
Projects Director
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)

ITDP
115 W. 30th St., Ste.1205
New York, NY 10001
tel: (212) 629-8001   fax: (212) 629-8033

Check the latest on-line issue of TransportActions at www.ITDP.org!

ITDP, founded in 1985, promotes socially equitable and environmentally
sustainable transportation policies and projects worldwide.




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