Young refugees gifted bikes this Christmas in Canterbury

Kent Refugee Action Network have so far donated 50 bikes to young asylum seekers with the help of the Bike Shed in Margate. Aiden McNamee reports.

Transcript

00:00Do you remember your first bike? It might have been a hand-me-down or a birthday present but for a lot of us it was for Christmas.

00:08And here in Canterbury one charity is hoping to bring some of that festive cheer to young refugees.

00:13The Kent Refugee Action Network, CRAM for short, has launched their Christmas Pedal Power Appeal.

00:18The plan? Convince the people of Kent to donate their old bikes, fix them up and bring the Christmas spirit to young people in need.

00:25So what does it mean to these young refugees when they get a bike?

00:28My name is Sanusi, I'm now nearly three years in the UK. I really feel happy because a bike has helped me a lot.

00:35We go to the football and go visit the friends and it's like freedom.

00:42Wherever you want to go, you just use your bike and it's easy and saves you time and saves you money.

00:49So we work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, so young people that come to this country without any family.

00:55We've given out this year 56 bikes to young people, so they're all second-hand donated bikes.

01:01The key to it really is the bike shed in Margate. They fix up the bikes and then we give them to young people with helmets, locks and lights.

01:09So what can money do for bikes? Well, a fiver gets you your basic emergency lights.

01:14A tenner gets a lock like this to keep it safe.

01:17For £15 we get some better, fancier rechargeable lights to keep safe at night.

01:23And for £20 we get a helmet like this.

01:26Obaida first came to Cran as a refugee in 2018. He worked with them as a youth ambassador and has even donated his own bikes to the cause.

01:33I've got two bikes, I'm not using them. I would rather give them to young people who get benefited from using it.

01:42Seeing the joy in a young person is such a great thing.

01:46They're giving them hope and opportunity and they're making them feel welcomed here.

01:53So why not donating bikes for them?

01:57Aidan McNamee, KMTV News.