Even without money, Selim wants to continue recovering bicycles and putting them to use in Lisbon

Selim, a project that promotes the circular economy in Lisbon, was born in September 2020 with the support of the city council. Now, with no money from the City Council since April, it got tired of waiting for the promised renewal of support and is looking for new ways of subsistence, because what it really wants is to continue.

Photo by Mário Rui André/Lisbon for People

Carlos Moedas has said that he is "very fond" of bicycles, but the word has to be translated into practice and the city's pedal projects are beginning to despair between the momentary lack of support from the City Council that they were used to and the uncertainty as to whether this support will continue. This is the case with Selim, one of the arms of the Cicloda association, which aims to stimulate the circular economy. Selim receives bikes donated by those who don't need them more them, recover them and make them available to those who need them.

Gennaro Giacalone came to Lisbon from Italy in 2018 with a thesis to complete. An architect by profession, he perfected his passion for bicycle mechanics in the Portuguese capital. He had already picked up a taste for it at the community workshops in Milan and Cicloficina dos Anjos in Lisbon was Gennaro's first contact with the tools and the local cycling community. It was there that he met Rosa Félix and Nuno Pinhal, two key people in the community and also in Cicloda. Last year, he was invited to join Selim full-time.

Photo by Mário Rui André/Lisbon for People

"This is my job. I'm here every day"says Gennaro, dispelling any doubts there might have been about whether a bicycle mechanic in a social project was a full-time occupation like any other. Gennaro can be found at 246 Rua de São Bento. The space was given to Cicloda by the Lisbon City Council, which has "invested a lot of money" renovating walls, painting, creating a canopy and other work to make it usable. Cicloda pays a symbolic rent to the municipality for the store, which it can only use for Selim.

While we talk, Gennaro carefully cleans rust and other dirt from the rim of a wheel. He is working on a bike that he says will make its future owner very happy. The room is dark and welcoming. The lighting only focuses on essential points, such as the workbench. In the background, a playlist to set the pace. Since it was launched in September last year, Selim has already recovered 230 bikes from the "around 300 bikes, a bit more, 310" that it has received from people and organizations that no longer need them. In other words, Selim is helping to get bikes that were sitting in a corner somewhere in a garage or storage room back into circulation, once they have been properly recovered and made available to those who need them.

The loan is designed for the long term and for a one-off fee of between €10 and €30, depending on the type of bike - an electric bike will be more expensive, but still much more affordable than buying a new vehicle in a store. Half of the amount Selim asks for acts as a deposit and is returned at the end of the loan, which doesn't exactly have an end date. However, the bicycle loans made throughout this year 2021 end at the end of December. If people want to return the bike, they get their deposit back - that is, half the value of the loan. If they want to keep it, they can buy it from Selim, which means returning the full amount of the loan.

As for donations, Selim accepts bikes in any condition and also accessories such as lights, reflectors, locks, luggage racks, bells and rests. To order a bike or to giveAll you have to do is fill in a form on the Selim website and wait for someone from the project to contact you. Gennaro says that they currently have around 600 active requests and "we couldn't respond to everyone because of the lack of bikes". "We are aware that we can and could have done more, but it doesn't all depend on us. If there are no donors, we have no material to work with." Gennaro says there is no shortage of manpower, although two more arms could help speed up processes.

After a first year operating with financial support from Lisbon City Council, Selim had asked for this support to be extended to maintain the current team and add a mechanic. The money from the municipality for Selim ran out in April and, since then, Cicloda has been supporting the project, including Gennaro's salary, which combines mechanics with running Selim, and the green receipts of the two people who, part-time, take care of all the logistics, responding to requests for donated bikes and collecting them. Cicloda has been promised an extension of the support, but Gennaro says that "we've been hearing this for too long".

Photo by Mário Rui André/Lisbon for People

At the public meeting of the City CouncilThe former councillor for mobility, Miguel Gaspar, currently a councillor without portfolio, questioned the current executive on whether the absence of the proposal to extend municipal support for Selim had been excluded from the vote by "political option"Moedas replied that it was still with the services and would be discussed at a later meeting.

Gennaro and Cicloda don't yet know what the future of Selim will be, but even without the money from the municipality, the space is not at risk. They have been trying to apply for other social funds and are studying alternative sources of income within what the contract for the space allows them to do. One of the ideas on the table is to provide training for mechanics and another is to transform Selim into a space for cowork with more mechanics who could work on his projects there. Gennaro would like to continue repairing bicycles and hopes to be able to do so at Selim, albeit on a voluntary basis, together with more volunteers, if new funds don't come in to allow Selim to continue on a regular basis. At the very least, he will be able to return to architecture.

"We are very sorry to announce that the Selim project will be suspended from 2022 due to a lack of funds. This has been a difficult decision, and our team has been tireless in seeking a resolution contrary to the one we are announcing. However, we have to face the reality of the numbers, even if motivation and personal effort have brought us this far beyond what is sustainable. The reality boils down to the following: SELIM has been operating without support from Lisbon City Council since April 2021. The project has managed to continue with the Cicloda association's own funds, with a lot of budgetary restraint, which has included work on the new workshop space and paying for the work of the project's employees for the last 8 months, always with a view to the approval of the extension of CML's support. At the moment, however, it has become unsustainable to continue, given the lack of effective public or private funding for the project."

- excerpt from Selim's statementon December 4, 2021
Photo by Mário Rui André/Lisbon for People

Next Saturday, December 19, starting at 3pm, Selim will be organizing a Christmas fair in its premises to raise money.This is a great opportunity for anyone to sell bicycle parts or other bicycle-related products. Brands can also join in. Around 10% of each sale will go to the Saddle and the rest to the seller, unless they want to donate more or all of what they earn.

On the same day, at 6pm, there will be a kind of peddy-paper cycling through Lisbon. In fact, the initiative is called the AlleyCat Race, or orienteering race, and the winner will be whoever manages to find their way around the city best. Each participant will have a few points around Lisbon to pass through (which will be different from other participants) and the challenge is to pass through them all in the shortest time possible. It's not a test of physical effort, but of knowledge of the city. Registration costs 5 euros. To register for both the fair and the race, all you have to do is send a message to Selim by e-mail or via Messenger.

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