We are pleased to share that our good friend Charlotte Ward, the Executive Director of the Re-Cycle Bikes to Africa Charity has been named as one of Cycling UK’s “100 Women in Cycling 2025“!

Cycling UK’s 100 Women in Cycling awards celebrate extraordinary women who inspire, encourage and empower others to experience the joy of cycling. From community champions who are making cycling more accessible to everyone in their local community, to industry moguls who are challenging gender stereotypes in the cycling sector, these awards highlight the amazing achievements of women from all over the cycling world.

A True Industry Mogul

The 100 women selected were divided into four core categories: Community champion, Sporting hero, Cycle influencer, and Industry mogul. Charlotte was listed in the latter ‘industry mogul’ category, and the reason for her selection described thus:

For more than 10 years, Charlotte Ward, Director of Re-Cycle – Bikes to Africa, has advanced sustainability by turning unwanted UK bikes into tools for empowerment and mobility for rural African communities. Under her leadership, Re-Cycle has collected tens of thousands of bikes, providing vital transport for schoolchildren and healthcare workers. Charlotte actively drives gender equality by ensuring women and girls access these life-changing opportunities. In the UK, she inspires a culture of repair and donation, proving that a discarded bike can build bridges between communities and cultures.

Ward speaks passionately about the impact of bicycles on children and women:

“Providing a child with a bicycle is not merely a charitable act; it is an investment in the child’s future. I believe the bike not only promotes cycling as a sustainable mode of transport; it also drives gender equality.”

Significant Impact & Key Partnerships

Operating from a substantial and well organised warehouse facility in the South East of the UK, the Re-Cycle Charity is one of the most impactful bicycle charities worldwide. Operating for nearly 30 years, they have distributed over 160,000 refurbished bicycles to their partner projects across Africa.

The impact of this charity is also hugely impressive based on their dedicated and passionate staff, with many of the mechanics being retirees who volunteer their time for the good of the charity.

They have an incredible process, stripping and assessing each donated bicycle, and replacing key components from the substantial stocks of spares which they maintain. If a bicycle is beyond refurbishment, it is stripped of its useful partners and the frame and fork materials sent off for recycling.

Second-hand bicycles arrive regularly from donor organisations, with a key supporter being the UK’s Halfords Group – a UK headquartered retailer of motoring and cycling products and services – who donate bicycles which are brought in by their customers in part exchange for new machines. This partnership has existed since 2013, and is now responsible for over 100,000 bicycles donated to date.

Great Britain’s Olympic cycling legend Chris Boardman has been a major supporter of this project for many years, and actually became a patron of Re-Cycle in 2016 for a number of years. This is a great connection as Halfords are a major stockist of Boardman’s bicycle brand, so many of the bikes from his company experience a second life when traded in for a new bicycle there.

Reflecting on his experience when he visited the Re-Cycle facility, Boardman stated: 

“It is a wonderful charity to be involved in. It is such an impressive set up to see that everything is being reused and when you get to the very last bit where ‘we can’t use this’, even that’s being recycled.”

No other UK or Europe-based charity like Re-Cycle could handle this volume of donated bicycles, helping Halfords, as a listed company, to deliver strong results against its Sustainability/ESG commitments they will have to their investors. This partnership ensures these bicycles live a strong second life, avoid ending in landfill, and support a brilliant UK headquartered charity which is makes a substantial impact in the developing world. You can read more about this partnership on the Halfords website.

Seven Key Projects Across Africa

For several years, Re-Cycle has worked with six key projects across Africa. These are based in Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Zambia. In 2025, an exciting new partner in Nigeria was added, with Re-Cycle’s project map showing a great coverage across the continent (see below)

2025 has been another strong year for the charity, with 15,000 bicycles donated, 20 containers delivered and 9,000 volunteer hours logged. Re-Cycle have now sent over 350 container of bicycles to Africa in total. Truly, truly impressive numbers.

Helping to Develop The Sport of Cycling

We here at Team Africa Rising are proud to work closely with Re-Cycle Charity frequently as well. We often receive inbound enquiries about donating equipment, clothing, bicycles, helmets and similar. In many cases this equipment is better suited to the projects with whom Re-Cycle work closely, and we donate or introduce Charlotte and her team.

This has involved significant donations from folk like our friends at Rapha (UK), who have supplied hundreds of items of clothing, cycling shoes and brand new helmets. We have also now sent equipment to road racing projects in the nations in which Re-Cycle operates, to help the sport development side of cycling there as well.

To read more about this highly impactful charity, see how you can donate an unused bicycle (UK only) or make a donation, go check out their website and get involved! They are very active on Instagram as well.