Pedals to the people

>> Cyclo Nord-Sud gives new life to old bikes

by NOEMI LOPINTO

Photo by Jason Felker

When the people at Cyclo Nord-Sud think revolution, it’s the pedal driven, two-wheeled kind. The organization collects abandoned or unwanted bicycles, fixes them up and sends them to impoverished countries—making the difference, Cyclo Nord-Sud’s coordinator and founder, Claire Morisette, says, between a life of misery and one that’s semi-decent. “Bikes are efficient, silent, non-polluting, cheap and easy to fix. They can keep a young girl in school or give a street kid a job. When we send bikes down south we are sending them to work.”

That’s why the people at Cyclo Nord-Sud are hosting their “Recyclothon” on Saturday, May 18. They are hoping Montrealers will bring their used, but still serviceable, bikes to l’École Jeanne-Mance on Marie-Anne and Cartier, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Morisette has been working full time for the organization since 1998. On average, she says, North Americans buy a new bike every five years, and the old ones languish in a shed or rust down to nothing outdoors. Cyclo Nord-Sud claims there were 625,000 bikes sold in Quebec alone in 2000. Last year the organization recycled slightly over 2,000 and sent the majority of them to Cuba, Mexico, and South Africa.

“The used bicycle market is simply incapable of absorbing all the bikes,” says Morisette. “We have to let people know that there are uses for them. A field worker who has to walk three hours a day, back and forth from work, can pedal it in half an hour. That means they can work more hours, and at the end of the week they’ve gained almost a day’s extra wages. This means a lot when the average pay is a few dollars a month. In other cases there are young girls taken out of school to fetch water and wood for the family. Making that trip can take up to three hours every day. Little girls end up uneducated, and if they become young single mothers, it can be a singularly miserable existence. With bikes, they can carry three times the load in a third of the time, so they have more of a chance of continuing their studies. A bike gets these people out of misery, in total dignity.”
Cyclo Nord-Sud favours donations to single mothers and girls, who are more likely to develop skull and spinal injuries from carrying up to 50 kilograms a day of water, wood and food over long distances.

There will be many ideologically related booths at the Recyclothon, among them the ubiquitous Éco-quartier people, OXFAM, the Quebec Federation of Labour and Santropol Roulant. There will be a photo exhibition of cargo bikes being used to transport merchandise, an interactive display of a pedal-powered electrical generator, contests and music by a local band. Cyclo Nord-Sud is in the process of negotiating new partnerships with NGOs in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Burkina Faso, Africa. Morisette says she is hoping to harvest a few hundred bikes this Saturday. “So far, there has been a lot of response,” says Morisette. “We’ll make it worth the trip.” :