Letter from Re-Cycle

MSE_Martin

As well as helping people save money, over the last 3 years this site has enabled over £200,000 to be given to various charities, nominated and chosen by MoneySavers - see the Charity Fund.

One of those, my personal pick for this year Re-Cycle, collects and ships disused bikes to developing countries, and teaches bicycle repair and maintenance skills to locals, helping improve the quality of life. One of its partners, Londor Enterprises, recently sent a letter to let us know how the money has benefited it and the people it helps.

It shows a different side to the power of MoneySaving, so i thought you'd all like to see (there's some lovely pictures at the bottom too )

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Dear Martin and MoneySavers:

We write to say thank you very much for all the help you have given us through Re-Cycle. The assistance went a long way in solving many of our financial and logistical problems. We are grateful, very thankful and although we first wrote to say thank you, we felt duty-bound to do it more formally. Please find hereunder a brief a about our activities and constraints:

Londor Enterprises (LE) is a Liberian-owned grassroots empowerment organization, a semi-charity, that is based in Monrovia, Liberia. LE in late 2004 established a development-based partnership with Re-Cycle (RC), the British bicycle charity.

Under this partnership, Re-Cycle and LE agreed that the former would provide used Royal Mail bikes to the latter for sale in Liberia at reasonable prices, with LE paying the shipment and clearing costs.

On November 19, 2004, according to the packing list, LE received its first shipment of bikes from RC. The consignment contained 323 bikes, which arrived in a 40-ft container at the Freeport of Monrovia.

Our Activities

LE is mainly involved in development activities, with a bit of charity aspect. This is why the bikes are sold at low prices and some of it given out to people who need it but cannot afford to pay for it.

Hence our activities among others include:

• Careful selection of our beneficiaries so that people cannot front for others and make unnecessary profits.
• Receive the container from RC/clear the bikes from the port and store same at our site.
• Distribute through low price sales and charity donations.
• Follow up on our beneficiaries and see how well the bikes serve them.
• Service/repair bikes and replace spare parts.
• Find partners who can help us reach other/leeward counties of Liberia.

Uses of the Bikes

We ourselves have been amazed at how useful the bikes have been to our beneficiaries.

• Students, teachers, social workers, etc use them for mobility purposes

• Retailers use them to carry such commodities as Coca Cola products, cigarettes, fuel, water, and charcoal.

• Farmers use them to carry farm produces such as plantain, cassava, and eddoes

• We have seen people carrying little children in the bikes’ carriers!

• Rubber tapers use the bikes in Nimba county to move about the plantations, carrying latex.

• We have also witnessed some men using their bike to take his car battery to be recharged, in the wake of the lack of public electricity in many parts of Monrovia

Constraints

• The above uses of the RM bikes show that they are a big asset for mobility and development in Liberia. But our clients’/potential customers’ constraint is equally our constraint: lack of money. The lack of purchasing power of our customers has greatly led to low sales and in some cases no sales for longer periods. For examples we are currently selling at the rate of about ten bikes or less a month.
• Heavy taxation and huge container clearance costs have also had its negative impact on LE’s rapid progress. We find it hard remaining in business. For example, we are expecting another shipment any moment and have to pay an amount of US$5,625 in taxes and US1,900 for container clearance cost. This amounts to $U$7,525. Since we received the last consignment, sale has been so slow that we have sold only 35 of the 119 bikes that came. The 35 sold, we realized US$2, 450.

Our Gratitude

With the above constraints, we are immensely and mightily happy whenever we receive any measure of help from you, RC, or Fr Joe Brown. This is why we are writing this brief narrative to give you background information as to how and what we do. Again thank you so much and very much for the money you assisted us with through RC. It was well received and came in time. We will highly appreciate further help in the future. This is very vital in keeping us in business.

Although things are difficult now and business seems very stagnant due to slow pace of the Liberia economy which is just recovering from the ravages of war, we are very hopeful of a better future and brighter business environment. We even hope to start supplying bikes to leeward counties but it expensive now to do it in our present situation of low capital. In the future should sales improve, we hope to get a used pickup truck for this purpose. Also our clients, in addition to promising business environment, do give us a lot of hope to stay in business. The bikes are good and can be used for many utility purpose, and they (clients) have always told us not to abandon the effort.

Here attached are a few pictures for your information. Many thanks to RC, Fr Joe and you and other partners who find interest in us. This communication is long overdue, but it is important that we speak to you. We also hope that this serves as a line opener between you and LE and for further information sharing.

Kind regards.

John T. Monibah