Refugee Council Cycling Project

RANT

Now I don't want to give a bad impression in my first blog but what is a blog, without a good old moan and what better to shout about than how I was left feeling late last night when Muhammed told me that his shiny new bike had been taken from outside the Refugee Council. I couldn't believe my eyes as I stood outside the door of our office staring at a wheel and lock. I immediately thought of it's material value however, I quickly forgot this when I realised how much Muhammed now relied on his bike and how much he would miss it, he had even stopped buying a weekly travel pass! Now this episode although upset me, did not surprise me, we are after all in London, a city where if you get your bike nicked Saturday night you can guarantee it will turn up on Brick Lane early Sunday morning. I now ask myself; how many times had this bike been stolen before ending up in our hands. Indeed the wheel does turn!!

Carina Crawford

Fantastic freewheel

  When I arrived in Brixton I was really worried about what else might go wrong - perhaps the bikes would've been stolen.  However I arrived at our office to see that all the bikes had been unloaded and were waiting for me.  No sooner did Helen and her husband drive off to get their own bikes than the first of the young people turned up.  By the time we were due to leave everyone had arrived and we had a motley crew of staff, volunteers and young people all ready to go.  Now it was really time to worry - how would a group of 20+ people manage to get from Brixton to Buckingham Palace in one piece? As I handed out the preprepared maps I was feeling a little anxious.  However the route in was absolutely fine, we avoided almost all of the main roads and stuck together fairly well.  It was great to have volunteers at the front and the end of the "snake" and as the roads were so quiet it didn't matter that we didn't stick in formation all the time.  In fact it felt brilliant to be part of such a big group!

If I felt that 20 or so was big then freewheel blew my mind.  As we arrived there were thousands of cyclists.  I had no idea what to expect but this was just amazing! We met up with some others at the LCC stand on the mall and had the chance to explore the area before we joined freewheel.  It was so good to see everyone get excited at Buckingham Palace and seeing the guards not to mention seeing everyone wearing their spoke t-shirts - it made the trip up and the cycle round so much easier as we could spot who was in our group by the colour of their tops.

Once we set off on the route is was fantastic - it felt so great to be cycling with so many people and so empowering to have completely taken over the road.  I think my favourite bit was cycling through the tunnel or perhaps it was seeing how much the young people enjoyed themselves after weeks of hard work mending the bikes and how pleased they all were to finally get their very own bike. 

I can't quite describe much I loved it or how proud I was of everyone who had helped make it happen, it was such an amazing day and hopefully just the start of more cycling trips.  I've been smiling ever since.  I think that this has been the best project I've worked on at the Refugee Council, both in terms of interacting closely with some amzing young people and volunteers and also personally in actually getting me a little bit fitter and actually riding I bike.  I would never have thought at the start of the year I'd be cycling to work.

Vanessa

Storm before the calm

It was a fraught week on the build up to freewheel with lots of things going wrong.  Firstly I lost my mobile phone in a cycling related way – in constantly checking my map I had managed to pull my phone out of my pocket so it is now languishing somewhere on the streets of south London.  However being without a phone was nothing compared to the events that unfolded later on in the week.

I thought I had found a place to store the bikes so that we could collect them on Sunday morning in time for Freewheel, however that fell through and I started to descend into mild panic.  However thanks to an amazing colleague at the Refugee Council, Helen, and her brilliant husband we arranged to pick the bikes up in a van, store them outside their house over the weekend and then drop them off outside our office first thing on Sunday morning.  Phew! 

No sooner had this problem been solved than another one presented itself.  We ordered special t-shirts to wear on Sunday and to be delivered on Friday.  By 4.55pm the t-shirts still hadn’t arrived so I had to go to the depot in Bermondsey at about 7pm to pick them up – they couldn’t be redelivered to my house on Saturday as I was having to go to Croydon to pick up my replacement phone. 

So, the bikes were fine and the t-shirts were fine my only problem now was how to get myself, my bike, 30 t-shirts and a rucksack full of tools and waterproofs etc to Brixton for 10.15 on a Sunday morning?  Fortunately a friend offered to give me a lift, only to call up on Sunday morning at 9.20 to say that her battery was flat.  Eek!  In a mild panic, after a sleepless night going through all the things that could go wrong, I had to push the bike the 25 minutes to the train station – I have never walked so fast and just made the train into Brixton.

Vanessa

Buckingham Palace

I joined this project as i don't like not having anything to do. With the project i managed to keep myself busy for two evenings a week. Having something to dedicate to kept my mind busy. Working on one bike that i knew i could take home kept me motivated and i felt i had achieved something when i took it home to show off. The road safety lessons were the most important, as London streets are very dangerous. Some people who drive cars are very dangerous. I saw one boy driving very, very fast, so i need to know what to do to avoid people like that. Freewheel was fantastic! It was the first time i cycled with so many people. We all stuck together and i learnt everything like how to ride in groups. Normally you can't ride in central London as it is too dangerous. Everyone was together as we saw everything in London. Waterloo, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace. I learnt how to tell when The Queen is home. The flag was flying so I wondered if she was watching the thousands of people cycle round in front of her house. I want to know all the streets of London with my bike and then on the weekend take my bike outside of London which will make me very, very happy. I like the project because I feel free.

Hamid.

Gearing up for cycle trips

I´m really excited about this project: I love the freedom that cycling gives you to move around and get to know the city and beyond. I think it´ll be great for the young people because they will gain confidence and knowledge of their new home. I think there are so many great places in London that I only started to discover once I started riding around by bike; it lets you connect up all the places you might normally just pop up from the tube into. I´m also really looking forward to doing day trips out of the city, it´s really surprising how green it gets after just a short ride... I think it´ll be great for the young people to see some of the lovely countryside around us.

The project so far has been brilliant, the young people have all been so keen and have also listened really well as myself, Euan and Ahmed tried to pass on the knowledge we gained in the maintenance course. It was also a massive help that Ahmed was the master of bike maintenance so when we did get stuck we had someone to turn to!

I can´t wait for part three of the project when we head for the open(ish) road and also get to know the young people even better on the rides.

Kathryn

Kathryn is a Refugee Council volunteer.  We trained her in bike maintenance and she has been one of the lead volunteers on the project.

Getting ready for Freewheel

With Freewheel fast approaching we've held two cycle lessons and have our first road based lesson tonight.  I'm so impressed with both the young people and the volunteers.  Peter and Brigit have lead really good sessions and taught the group a lot about responsible and safe cycling.  After a little over excitement on being on the bikes the young people have taken the lessons seriously and have definitely improved their control skills, although I'm sure the excitement of actually being on the road might be a little too much for some of the group. 

The young people are really engaged in cycling and are taking the time to think about the importance of doing things properly.  At the maintenance class, after our first bike lesson, one of the group was adjusting Carina's seat and took the time to show her the correct positioning on the bike that he had learnt that day - it really made me proud!  The group are really working well together and supporting each other with both the bikes and the cycling.  They are also really helping me with my bike - they've adjusted my seat and even replaced it with a special ladies seat (for those with bigger bottoms) and sorted out my back wheel.

Onto my own cycling progress, although I'm still slow I'm being far more adventurous and cycled all the way from Brixton to Highbury and Islington last night - a bit sweaty and red faced but very proud.  As I cycled back through the city, getting horribly lost on the way, I really realised how empowering cycling was and what a sense of freedom it has given me.  It was amazing to cycle past St Paul's Cathedral and the Bank of England and see how accessible London actually is.  I really hope that having bikes will give our young people the same sense of freedom and empowerment and open up London in a way that just wasn't possible before.

Vanessa

Cycle training

Last week me and Brigit had our first teaching session which went amazingly well.  Initially I had a few concerns about how we were gonna pull through it and how the trainees would respond because it was our first time.  Our other concern was that the trainees were full of energy and we thought it would be hard to calm them down during the session.  To my surprise the young people were very cooperative, attentive and eager to learn.  I was so pleased with their concentration because it made our work easier.  By the end of the session I felt that we had achieved our objectives and had had fun in the process because the idea is to ride safely and have fun cycling.

Overall I'm so happy to have done the cycle instructor course and above all to be of help to others who want to learn how to ride safely on the road.

Peter

Volunteering

I got involved with the cycling project because I love cycling and am very interested in working with refugees and asylum seekers. I thought after so many years of cycling that I must have picked up a bit about bike mechanics, but having started the project I have realized that in fact I know very little and have always conveniently managed to get other people to help me with bike maintenance! So it has been a huge learning experience for me to see how to fix bikes and transform them from almost falling apart to shining and a pleasure to ride. All of the clients are really enthusiastic and it has been great working with everyone and getting to know them all. I am very excited about getting out on the open road with them all and their shiny new bikes!

Laura

Laura is a Refugee Council volunteer.

Learning about bikes

I knew nothing about fixing bikes but I have had a bike in London for 8 months.  I found fixing the wheel the most interesting part and the breaks as this is what makes the bike work.  When we got the bikes they weren't good but I think now in our fourth week we will have finished 11 which will all be road safe.  Everyone is motivated to get them fixed.

Today I learnt many things, some rules of the road.  I need to be aware of cars and how to give signals.  I learnt the right way to use the breaks.  Now I am more confident to go cycling but could do with a few sessions actually on the road.  I also learnt emergency stops and how to check the bike, if it is ok to use before setting off.  Both instructors were very helpful and encouraging.

I am really looking forward to Freewheel, not because it is a competition, but to ride alongside other people.  I really want to go on the trips, I have never been to Richmond and I would love to go.

Working as a group I have learnt a lot.  I will get a bike which will be great to help me save money.  I will not need to apply for a bus pass and it will help me to keep fit to compliment my swimming and football.

Mohammed

Mohammed is one of our clients and is also volunteering with this project.

Cycle Instructor Training

I got this chance to learn and become a qualified cycle instructor thanks to the Refugee Council.  I have always been a big fan of cycling!  With my years of cycling experience I thought I knew everything about it but I was proven wrong.  This course taught me a lot of new things like riding safely, which is different from riding in the park.  I was taught how to teach others to ride safely.  I really enjoyed the course it was lots of fun but a lot of hard work!

I have been assessed on my ability to ride safely and my ability to teach others and I satisfied my instructors and assessors.  I'm so happy to have passed my course and to become a cycling instructor.  It's brilliant!

Peter

Peter is a former client and is now volunteering with the Refugee Council.