The Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, in collaboration with the Danish Cycling Union, has just launched an initiative to help Ukrainian refugees by offering them a second-hand bicycle, allowing them to move freely in their host country. Moreover, this kind of citizen action is not only developing in Denmark.
For example, a website has been set up on which Danes who wish can donate a bicycle to a refugee from Ukraine. The idea is to donate a used bicycle to help these newcomers to the territory integrate into everyday life in Denmark.
This initiative, called “Donate a bicycle”, takes the form of an online form, where anyone can register to donate one or more bicycles. It will connect people with bicycles with Ukrainian refugees in need who live near their homes.
If it is possible to make a donation via the site, you can also choose to become an intermediary, that is to say on the spot bringing people who want to offer a bicycle into contact with their future owners. The goal is to have as many of these intermediaries as possible to facilitate the transfer of the largest number of bicycles on the ground.
This may seem symbolic, but it is in fact a strong gesture, because giving a refugee a bicycle means offering him a universal means of transport so that he can easily make all his daily journeys and thus ensure that he fits perfectly into his new community. . Note that the site also contains a whole section, in Ukrainian, about the traffic regulations in force in Denmark.
Similar initiatives are developing almost everywhere else in Europe. In France, for example, many donations (clothing, bicycles, etc.) are organized in cities that already welcome or prepare refugees from Ukraine.
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