Bike Bridge

Your Impact

Financing period: 1 October to around 25 October 2019
With your help we will support Bike Bridge as follows:

Financial

We’ll support the non-profit organization Bike Bridge e.V. with the revenues during the funding period.
Media

Storytelling about the Bike Bridge and related initiatives in other regions form integral part of our media work.

Bridging social and cultural gaps through cycling

Cycling connects!

Bike Bridge e.V. pursues the social goal of creating intercultural encounters at eye level between refugees, people with migration experience and the local population. With their offer they want to counteract the social isolation of women with migration and flight experience and achieve a big (first) step towards social integration. In 2017 they were awarded the “German Integration Prize” by the non-profit Hertie Foundation.
Bike Bridge organizes bicycle courses for women and girls with migration and flight experience, a frequently neglected target group. With an innovative concept that combines theoretical and practical bicycle training with short language learning units and excursions in the city, the mobility and independence of the participants is improved. This helps them to find their way better in their new environment. At the same time, the social and cultural exchange between this target group and the local population is to be facilitated and improved. Bike Bridge creates the conditions for the participants to come into contact with each other, with the trainers and with the locals and thus get to know the regional culture and traditions. Conversely, the locals also have the opportunity to get to know and experience the culture of the newcomers. The participants are thus offered a place in society and their participation in sporting activities is also encouraged. With its activities and a large network Bike Bridge forms an important bridge to other projects and integration offers.

Who is behind the project?

Shahrzad Mohammadi first had the idea for Bike Bridge in 2015 while visiting one of the local refugee accommodations. There, she noticed that most of the women were staying indoors, while men and children were in the yard playing football and basketball. After talking to the women, she decided it was time to come up with a sport-based program that was designed with their needs in mind and which combined mobility, social inclusion, and of course lots of fun. ‘Biking is a perfect activity for our target group as many of the women didn’t get a chance to learn how to ride a bike in their home country’.

More Information