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Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 24th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2021> The Burmese Bike King —Mike Than Tun Win
The Burmese Bike King —Mike Than Tun Win
Turning old bikes into new hopes

“A million bikes is just tip of the iceberg, I want to turn millions of broken shared bikes into something useful for the poor,” —Mike Than Tun Win
 
        Setting bikes to heaven
 
        Mike Than Tun Win was born in Mandalay, Myanmar, and was an distinguished alumni from the Nanyang Technological University.
        In 2011, after Myanmar entered a period of opening up and economic reform, Mike returned home to start an e-commerce business, and he quickily struck a goldmine, recycling used bikes.
        Myanmar has a very large and cheap public education system, but over 60 percent of elementary and middle school students must walk a long distance to school. A second-hand bike can cost anywhere between 1,000 to 2,000 burmese kyat, which can cover a poor family’s living expense for over six months.
        It was this moment that Mike made up his mind: he would give these poor children refurbished bikes so that they can ride to school to save time, and help protect the environment through recycling. According to local study, a bike can help one student save over 432 hours of walking every year, and the free time can be used to study.
        In 2018, the bike sharing boom in China, Malaysia and Singapore have created a surplus of second-hand bikes, which Mike could capitalize and put into good use. This was his way of helping his community.
 
        A dream of prosperity
 
        Mike had a dream since a young boy: let the children of Myanmar live in prosperity, and education is a key part of this goal.
        Mike himself was an excellent student, graduating with honors from the Nanyang Technological University in 2008. After which, he returned home to start a successful e-commerce business.
        Mike’s fortune piled up, but as he drives around the country in his car, seeing the vast fields of agriculture and children running to school, he had an epiphany: let these children have an easier time communing so that they can spend more time on their study.
        But this is a monumental task. UNICEF estimated that over 55 percent of all Burmese children live in poverty. Motorbikes or even second-hand bicycles are luxuries to them, so that many children must walk two to four hours, through rain and the sun, every day just to go to school.
        Mike was greatly moved by these facts, and he wanted to do something about it.
 
        A new miracle
 
        In 2019, the two biggest bike sharing companies in China, Mobike and OFO, were moving away from their foreign markets, leaving hundreds of thousands of used bikes in piles like graveyards of metal and scraps.
        Mike saw photos of said graveyards and was heart-broken, and he wanted to use the resources for good. Therefore, he launched an initiative called Lesswalk to buy abandoned bicycles, refurbish them, and donate them to children who have to walk over two hours to school every day.
        He shared the initiative on social media and it quickly blew up. But he realized that bike sharing companies also had a stockpile of brand-new bikes that were just sitting in warehouses because they are no longer needed. So Mike spent a about 400 NTD each to buy up 10,000 new bikes from OFO.
        Mike said he has never done any press release, or public relation stunts, but his actions have caught the attention of global mainstream media. Now, support from all around the world was flooding in.
        Lesswalk is primarily responsible for fixing and refitting the bike, and then redistribute them to villagers across Myanmar. They also found clever ways to modify the bikes so that they don’t require expensive equipment to be fixed, making them even more accessible to the public.
 
        Going Big
        Myanmar had around 9 million students, and 10,000 bikes was like a drop in the ocean. Therefore, Mike began thinking about expanding his operation to buy 100,000 bikes for the children.
        Bigger aspiration received bigger following, and soon companies from the United States, China, and the Netherlands began donating Mike’s initiative. Some were donating bikes, others were paying for the logistical transports, and all support of any kind were welcomed.
        Mike believed poverty can be solved through education. The world has plenty of inequality, but there are so many resources that can be mustered to help the people.
        Zun Saw was a Burmese girl dreamed of becoming an engineering. She lived very far from her school, but Mike’s project has saved her hundreds of hours of walking to school every year. She said she could now spend more time studying and hopefully get a good job and help her family.
        At the moment, Mike is working on his 100,000 bikes project, and he hopes to expand them to other countries such as Cambodia. “10,000 bikes is just the tip of the iceberg, there are millions of abandoned bikes around the world, our mission is to bring them to people in need.”