Introduced to the concept of a bicycle as an aid item when we realised the impact on day to day life for refugees in Calais of a daily walk to visit the government office to check on an asylum application. Refugee Bicycle Aid turned that long walk into a freewheel. Our first trip to Calais took place in August 2015 with the Critical Mass to Calais ride. The second aid delivery we made was crowdfun
ded by our community. Raising £820 allowed us to take a van heavy loaded with eighty reconditioned bicycles, tools and three bike mechanics out to France for five days, during which we built a mobile bicycle repair station for the aid distribution centre. We made two further visits to Calais and Dunkirk in 2016 ahead of 'The Jungle' being dismantled. Over the summer of 2016 we were offered the opportunity to support the delivery of a project in a Greek refugee camp in Filippiada for a month. This gave us the opportunity to understand the Greek response and get a better perspective on the refugee experience in another part of Europe. We visited three refugee camps and two squatted refugee centres in Athens during our stay. We are now making plans to take the idea of bicycles as aid items further from home.
