Public donate their bikes to local Ukrainians

Support group Swindon Welcomes Ukraine has hit a milestone as they’ve issued the 175th bike that’s been donated, repaired and issued to Ukrainians that have moved to Swindon. The group are now asking the public for more bikes to continue the project. 

Swindon Welcomes Ukraine (SWU) was established in April last year to support hosts and guests through the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. The aim was to help build a Ukrainian community within the Swindon area as well as helping them integrate and build a community. 

One of the community’s key challenges was mobility and the need to get around the town to go to interviews, school or work.  One family asked committee Vice-Chair, Kris Talikowski, for a couple of bikes. That was then shared on Facebook and Kris was initially inundated with offers of bikes. 

“We had over 40 people offering their bikes for Ukrainians it was fantastic.  We then had to work out how to collect them all, get them repaired, make them safe and then issued out to the growing community.” 

The team initially started by using the services of local bike shops like ‘Run and Repair' who were prepared to service some bikes for free or at cost.  Once the number of donated bikes exceeded 20, the ability for shops to support the scheme tailed off as they had to focus on their own businesses.   

The team secured a few small grants locally from 'Magic Little Grant' from LocalGiving (with the assistance of Swindon Cycle Campaign) and a grant from Wiltshire Community Foundation.  With this and their own fundraising, the team decided to take control of the repairs themselves.   Treasurer and cyclist, Dave Thrower, decided to get qualified, “I attended a Cyctec Level 2 bike mechanics course so that I could service the bikes to an industry standard. That increased the amount we could repair ourselves and has enabled us to get to 175 bikes to date. The Pattern Church have been amazing as they donated their top floor for our bike repair shop and enabled us to store and work on 35 bikes at a time”. 

Now the team has 4 volunteers working on the bike project, including 2 fully qualified mechanics. They are stocked up on the parts that are used on most bikes. These include things like cables, brake pads, and inner tubes which enable them to work on bikes quickly without waiting for parts.  

It costs an average of around £65 to repair a bike and issue it alongside some safety equipment.  So far grants and public donations have enabled the project to continue but the team are in need of more bikes, particularly female bikes, and donations to keep the repairs going. 

The SWU team have received 233 donated bikes, serviced 210 (some bikes that are uneconomic to repair are used for parts) and issued 175 bikes. 

All bikes are issued with a helmet, lock and lights and a document on safe riding to ensure the riders stay safe. 

Committee chair, Sofiia Volovyk, commented, "the operation has been a huge success and very rewarding. Our Ukrainian guests are extremely grateful to have independence and the means to get around socially or for school and work. There is no doubt that this has helped achieve the initial aims of building a community and allowing guests to integrate and contribute to the wider Swindon community.”

To donate a bike or make a financial  donation to help the project visit https://www.ukraineswindon.com/bikes