An update on the Bike Library at Taylor

The Bike Library beside Margaret Hendry Primary School in Taylor has restarted for the year with a significant change. Jagmeet Sandhu, our amazing and deeply valued coordinator for more than two years, has moved on following the withdrawal of Mingle’s support for the program. Pedal Power is extremely grateful to Jagmeet, the Mingle team and the Margaret Hendry School community, who, together with Pedal Power’s volunteer bike mechanics, have been instrumental in building a program that is trusted, well used and deeply valued. 

While the Bike Library continues to evolve locally, its impact also reaches well beyond Canberra. 

Some bikes in the Pedal Power ACT Bike Library eventually reach a point where they are no longer suitable for local borrowing and are marked for scrap. Refugee and Bike Library volunteer Prince Jyubeh restores many of these bikes, particularly BMXs, and sends them to Glorious Uniting Helps Ministries, which supports students and single mothers living long distances from schools and essential services. 

Prince arrived in Australia in 2008 after spending nearly two decades in a refugee camp in Sierra Leone. During the civil war, many women were widowed, and families lost reliable access to transport, a reality that still shapes his understanding of what a bicycle can mean. 

“A bike can mean a child gets to school, or a mother can reach work or services,” Prince says. “Sometimes it’s that simple.” 

From Taylor to Sierra Leone, the Bike Library shows how a local program can make a difference far beyond Canberra.