In an era of sustainable living, bikes are often made from recyclable aluminium, a near-infinite potential, or they're made from reclaimed parts available from old bikes.

Few people are recycling the whole bike, but that's what happens thousands of times a year at Bikes for the World, a nonprofit based in the United States that's shipped used bicycles and parts to Namibia, Costa Rica, the Philippines and beyond. All told, more than 133,000 recycled bicycles have gone to places where they're making a difference in at least 22 countries since the 2005 launch of the project.

The latest story comes from Sierra Leone, where Kadiatu – a teacher in Lunsar – manages the Village Bicycle Project (VBP). She's one of the few female mechanics in the country, and a role model for girls as she keeps the "bicycle library" in good working order. These bikes are available to female students to help ensure they continue and complete their educations, with transport a critical challenge in doing so.

Bikes for the World makes youth education a priority, but that's not the only reason for the project. Founded by Keith Oberg (new executive director Taylor Jones just took the helm in January), the nonprofit's mission is to boost affordable transport for families, workers, even government entities and other NGOs working in places where infrastructure isn't always as advanced and a ride isn't as easy to catch. That's not only in developing countries, but it's there that a bicycle and affordable parts can make the biggest impact in lifting a village family out of poverty by improving access to more opportunities.

"When VBP came to the community, many farmers signed up for the introductory class that goes over basic bike maintenance and includes a bicycle for every participant," the organization said of its Sierra Leone effort. It opens up their agricultural economy: "The, mostly male, farmers planned to use the bikes to tend to their crops, carry more produce to market, and travel to the town center more quickly."

Bikes for the World also offers classes to teach children and adults to learn to ride safely, and programs for bike maintenance that are for individuals, or for creating new bike-repair jobs in a community.

It's hard to gauge just how much aluminium has been kept in service across 133,000 bikes gone on to other lives, but there are a lot of partners involved in collecting them. Police departments, universities and other centers of unclaimed-bike stocks often donate caches of bikes, as do individuals. Race Pace Bicycles, a small business with seven stores in the Baltimore-Washington region, serves as a collection point for Bikes for the World – making it easier for customers getting new ones to share their old ride.

Some volunteers are so loyal that they travel each year to ship to a country they know or feel connected to, and the community built around Bikes for the World is an added dimension to the program benefits. Mostly, they're keeping much-needed bicycles and parts in service, recycling them for new purposes – and celebrating success when that kid in the Philippines finishes high school to become a software test engineer, or the 65-year-old man in Guinea Bissau makes a better living by running a bike repair shop.