World Bicycle Relief appeals for volunteers to fundraise for bikes at UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland in August

Target of sending 1m specially-built Buffalo bicycles to Africa and South America by 2025

Volunteers are being sought for the UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland in August to help a charity raise enough money to send 1 million specially-built bikes to communities in need across the world by 2025.

World Bicycle Relief (WBR) wants people to help fundraise at events during the first such championships to be held north of the Border, including in Glasgow, Fort William and Glentress, near Peebles.

WBR, the championships’ official global charity partner, provides specially-designed “Buffalo bicycles” for use in countries such as in Africa and South America to carry heavy loads over rugged terrain in areas without roads. It said the bikes could transform lives by helping schoolchildren and adults access education, employment, and healthcare.

Buffalo bicycles enable children to be carried over rugged terrain. Picture: World Bicycle Relief

Volunteers will lead community bike rides and help with school and club activities and other fundraising events, such as a virtual reality experience of riding a Buffalo Bicycle, at the Glasgow Green BMX hub.

They will also help organise a “milk churn challenge” in the city’s George Square, where people can try to move objects such as full milk churns with and without the help of a Buffalo bicycle to demonstrate its capabilities.

The recruits will be separate from those who have volunteered to help at the championships, for which 8,000 applications were received for 4,000 posts.

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The UCI Cycling World Championships is being held in Scotland for the first time. Picture: UCI

Among the WBR recruits will be Mark Kiehlmann, a Glasgow-based project manager who has volunteered for the charity for three years. He said: “The championships is going to be an incredible opportunity to share WBR’s life-changing message that anyone, anywhere in the world should have the opportunity to pursue their goals without feeling stuck or unsafe due to distance or lack of transport.

“I’ve witnessed first hand the transformation that bicycles can bring to children, women and men in countries like Kenya where I once worked.

"Children could shorten the time taken to get to school by cycling, allowing them to travel more safely and quickly while providing more time for essential chores like collecting firewood or water. Women could easily transport more of the food they grew, sell it fresh and get home safely by bicycle.”