ชมรมจักรยานเพื่อสุขภาพแห่งประเทศไทย ชมรมจักรยานเพื่อสุขภาพแห่งประเทศไทย
Bicycle has always been best vehicle for people in communities anywhere. It is convenient to use, makes them independent, and helps them reach out farther than walking distance while saving money for travel. It is for everyone, whether for children to go to school, old people to meet friends and go to places for exercise, housewives to go to the market, workers to go to work, or anyone to do any business. Riding bike as physical activity also makes them healthy. Using bikes in daily life, they also contribute to help save the country money needed to buy ever increasingly expensive fossil fuels, and to reduce greenhouse gas that causes global warming and Climate Change and reduce pollution, both air and noise.
TCC’s studies in 12 provinces of Thailand in 2011 indicate that each household has at least one bicycle, but also reveal that many bicycles have been left unused or badly damaged, not much different from a wreck, and some bicycles still in use are also in bad shape and could create danger for users. These bicycles need proper repair while people in communities often lack necessary knowledge, skills, tools and materials to do so and bicycle repair shop is nowhere or too far away.
Thailand Cycling Club (TCC)recognizes the need to bring these left-over bicycles back to life importantly to promote use of bicycles in daily life by communities and initiated a Bicycle Repair by Volunteers Project since 2011 in connection with the Bicycle Community Project, Bike To Work Project and Bike To School Project under the Walking and Cycling Public Policy Advocacy Programme funded by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. To make the project more effective and increase sustainability of its purpose, in 2014, it becomes an outreach project of which activities now include teaching people in communities, old and young, adults and children, men and women, to be able to do certain simple repairs of, and maintain, bicycles by themselves under a new project title, “Volunteer to Repair and Teach How to Repair Bicycle Project.”
As it is by nature a volunteer project, it is headed by a committed volunteer himself who coordinates, on one hand, with communities that need and are ready to host the bicycle repair activity, and on the other hand, with cyclists who wish to volunteer as repairers or assistants. TCC office staffs then help with public relations, and purchases of necessary tools and bicycle spare parts. Initially it is expected to conduct bicycle repair and repair teaching activities two to three times a month in Bangkok and vicinity.
The improved project started in March; two sessions have already been carried out, one in the north and one in the south of the city. It now has programme till June 2014.
(see some pictures of activites go to https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.638878096187175.1073741895.123474771060846&type=1)
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Reported by Gawin Chutima
TCC Committee Member
and a volunteer in the Volunteer to Repair and Teach How to Repair Bicycle Project
12 April 2014
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