Greensboro’s Community Bike Shop empowers newly arrived refugees by offering community, new modes of transportation

Featured photo: Tonalmitzin Guzmán Pérez has been volunteering at the Community Bike Shop since her family first was introduced to the shop through the New Arrivals Institute. (photo by Elise LeSage)

Child-sized bikes are rarely donated to Barber Park’s Community Bike Shop but today, the Delawar family is in luck. 

After offering the children popsicles — much needed in the July heat — shop volunteer Tonalmitzin Guzmán Pérez wheels out a tiny bike for the family’s youngest. She sets the toddler up with a bright pink helmet and watches as the kids test out their new wheels.

Cooled by pop-up canopies and an industrial fan, volunteers and patrons mingle on the lawn outside the workshop’s brick facade. Some are here to learn about bike repair. Others came to borrow bikes for pleasure rides around Barber Park.

Muzhgan Delawar, who emigrated from Afghanistan just six weeks ago, is here for a different reason: her family needs a means of transportation to get around town. 

A car, for now, is out of the question — it would be too pricey, and acquiring an American driver’s license is difficult with her visa. Delawar hopes the Community Bike Shop can help.

Delawar was connected with the Community Bike Shop through the New Arrivals Institute, a non-profit that helps refugees get settled in Greensboro. The Community Bike Shop, known by locals for its free bike library and repair workshops, partners with organizations like NAI to gift bikes to those in need.

“We need a bicycle, especially for my husband and my son so they can bring some food from the supermarket,” she says. “We need a bicycle for the shops, and for my kids so they can play.” 

Delawar has four kids between the ages of 3 and 16 all of whom, except her toddler, will start school in the fall. Like many refugees from Afghanistan, her family found themselves in danger when the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

“Nobody can work, nobody can study, nobody can get a job,” says Delawar, a US government employee who was forced into hiding when the Taliban began persecuting women at her workplace.

She refers to her eldest daughter, a 14-year-old who enjoys riding bikes for sport. 

“She cannot study,” Delawar explains. “We just counted the days. Which day can we go to America? Which day can we go to America?”

When volunteer Guzmán Pérez first started visiting the Community Bike Shop in 2023, she and her brother were often the only ones using the bike library. Now, she sees an average of 20 cyclists each Sunday. The growth is exciting, but it also puts the pressure on, “to fix bikes faster,” she says.

The shop receives bike donations from Greensboro businesses such as Cycles De Oro and Reconsidered Goods and individuals who are familiar with their mission. While some of these bikes arrive ready to ride, most need significant work.

“We recently received 300 bikes,” says Guzmán Pérez, who has been volunteering for more than a year. “I don’t think it’s a problem, but it is a challenge.” 

Guzmán Pérez is a college student from Mexico. Her family immigrated to the Triad three years ago and like the Delawars, they first heard of the Community Bike Shop through the NAI. Her father and brother, both engineers, were eager to help repair broken bikes. Now, her whole family pitches in at the shop every Sunday, either tinkering on or setting up fellow community members with bikes.

Their help is badly needed, Guzmán Pérez says. According to her, around a fifth of the bikes they received were beyond repair.

“We can’t fix them; we just take pieces,” she says. “So we lost 20 percent of bikes we need for people on the wish list.”

The wish list of individuals waiting for bikes — each a member of either the NAI, the North Carolina African Services Coalition, or one of the shop’s other local partners — grows every week. The Community Bike Shop volunteers do their best to keep up with the demand. However, they understand that these bikes will be many recipients’ primary means of transportation, relied on for errands, employment and gig-economy positions like Uber Eats. As such, the volunteers work hard to ensure that each bike is fully repaired before it gets given away.

“People need the bikes for work,” says Guzmán Pérez, who describes relying on the Greensboro bus system as “horrible.” “And for fun. Families come and say: ‘I used to have bikes in my country, and I want for my kids.’”

For Guzmán Pérez’s family, helping their community is part of their personal philosophy. 

“My brother and my dad, they’re closer now because they’re working on e-bikes together, and my mom practices English,” she says. “I met a lot of people here, and now when I hang out, I have more friends.”

The repair shop and bike library, which welcomes patrons of all backgrounds and experience levels, is open on Sunday afternoons from 1-4 p.m. If you have a bike to donate or are interested in volunteering at the Community Bike Shop, reach out to the volunteer team at [email protected] or on Instagram at @communitybikeshop.barberpark.