Got a bike you're not using? This cycling group can help you donate it to a woman who needs it

When EshratMeshkat first heard from a friend about a cycling group for women in Toronto, she was excited but a bit reluctant.

"Biking was not considered something a woman could do back home. It was for men," said Meshkat, 51, who immigrated with her family to Canada from Iran four years ago.

But with her family's support, she decided to go for it and got a bicycle last year through the Bike Match Project, a program startedby the Women's Cycling Network that encourages peopleto donate bikes they're no longer using to women who need them.

Now, Meshkat can't get enough of it.

"I was scared of hurting myself but eventually that fear turned into a sense of freedom," she told CBC Toronto.

It's stories like Meshkat's that convinced Najia Zewari, co-founder of the Women's Cycling Network, to celebrate Bike Month in Toronto by running the the Bike Match Project again this year tohelp women from diverse communities.

"For many women, riding a bike was a childhood dream which they could not achieve in their home country," Zewarisaid.

Bike Month is marked everyJune to encourage cycling as a way toexplore neighbourhoods, learn related skills and help people connect with each other.

Donated bikes empower women from diverse communities

3 years ago

Duration 2:13

A Toronto program matches people who have bikes they're no longer using to women who need them. The program helps immigrant women for whom cycling was "a childhood dream which they could not achieve in their home country," the group's co-founder says.

There are more80 women living in the GTAwho are waiting to receive their bikes through the Bike Match program. Donors and recipients can registeratbikematchwcn.com. Once a donor and a recipient are matched, they are directed to a spot where the handover can take place.

The project was inspired by a similar program in the U.S. that helped people donate bicycles to essential workers who neededthem at the beginning of the pandemic.Zewari sayshergroup decided to take it a step further and help women from diverse communities get on wheels and boost their mental health.

The pandemic provided another compelling reason forthe Women's Bike Networkto run the program again this year, as boomingdemand for bicycles coupled with supply issues made them nearly impossible to find in stores and online.

For Zewari, it did not take her too long to realize the potential of biking as tool of empowerment.

While working as a peer leader at the Wellness Cafe an initiative run by a group called the Afghan Women's Organizationshe helped women, many of whom left families behind in their home countries,deal with the anxiety of beingnew immigrants to Canada

"One day, I asked them to name something that will cheer them up.Some women said biking," she said.

Zewari collaborated with local community organizations like CultureLinkand Evergreen Brickworks that trained the group in cyclingand the basicmechanics.

Zewari says biking helped these women break cultural, physical and emotional barriers.

"The members became confident;they enjoyed their freedom of moving around and exploring their neighbourhoods and are now independent enough to run daily errands," she said.

Cycling had such a positive impact on Sediqa Nowrozian's physical and mental health, the 51-year-old decided to donate a bike this year..

"Biking became a huge part of my life when I wasn't able to meet my family. When the pandemic hit, meeting them became a distant dream," said Nowrozian, whoimmigrated to Canada alone from Afghanistan in 2016

Nowrozian, who's now an advocatefor safe cycling for women. says she was overjoyed the day she found out that she would be matched with a bike.

"I was so happy, I would go biking with my friends and I was able to see so many places in the city that I did not know about."

Meantime, women who are still waiting to be matched with a bike donor say it is worth the wait.

Shrouq Abdulraheem, 45,used to cyclewhen she was a little girl in her home country of Iraq, but has never owned a bike since. She is eager for that to change.

"I was matched once but the bike was too small for my height, so I gave it up," she said...

Talking about the expansion plan,Zewari saysthe Women Cycling Network is collaboratingwith various neighbourhoods and community organizations topromote the cause.She hopes this Bike Month will inspire people in Toronto to come forward and donate their bikes.