This Danish initiative offers bicycles for Ukrainian refugees

Danes have created a website to provide bicycles to as many Ukrainian refugees as possible. Photo: AFP

Denmark's ministry of transport, in cooperation with the Danish cyclists' federation, has just launched an initiative to help Ukrainian refugees by offering them a second-hand bicycle, guaranteeing them freedom of movement in their host country.

A website has been set up to enable Danes who wish to do so to donate a bicycle to a refugee from Ukraine. The idea is to donate a used bicycle to help these newcomers integrate into everyday life in Denmark.

Called "Give a bicycle", this initiative takes the form of an online form, where anyone can register to provide one or more bikes. It will connect people offering bicycles with Ukrainian refugees living nearby who may need one for getting around.

While it's possible to make a donation via the site, one can also choose to become an on-site intermediary between people eager to offer a bicycle and their future owners.

The goal is to have as many of these intermediaries as possible in order to facilitate the transmission of as many bikes as possible on the ground.

It may appear to be a largely symbolic initiative, but in reality it is one that has significant, practical impact, because by providing a refugee with a bicycle, one is offering that person a universal mode of locomotion so that they can easily make all their daily excursions and thus ensure that they fit into their new community.

Note that the site also includes a whole section detailing, in Ukrainian, information on the traffic rules in force in Denmark.Elsewhere in Europe, similar initiatives are developing.

In France, for example, numerous collections of donations (clothes, bicycles, etc) are being organised in cities hosting or about to host refugees from Ukraine. – AFP Relaxnews