The bicycle has often been hailed as one of mankind's greatest inventions.

In its January 2007 newsletter, Japan for Sustainability, an organization that shares information on developments and activities originating in Japan that lead toward sustainability, wrote about JOICFP and the MCCOBA scheme in the context of the benefits of the bicycle.

Some of the many benefits of the bicycle listed in the newsletter include:

• Very efficient
• No pollution or greenhouse gases
• Easy maintenance
• Good for health
• Uses very little non-renewable resources
• Affordable compared to automobiles
• No driver's license required
• Can be operated 24 hours a day
• Can be used by nearly all people
• Quiet
• Uses little space
• Less public money needed to create road systems

Illegally-parked bicycles litter
the front of a station in Japan

Since 1988, MCCOBA, comprising JOICFP and 13 municipalities, has been reconditioning confiscated bicycles and sending them overseas to be used by health workers in the field.

Many of these field workers are women, and the low and easy maintenance of a bicycle means they can sustain their activities, such as delivering health services and information.

Bicycles serve as non-monetary incentives for the field workers' voluntary contributions and are a socially recognized symbol given to the field workers in the community.

In addition, field workers are usually poor and cannot afford to buy gasoline even if they are provided vehicles; bicycles facilitate project and program sustainability.

This readiness and preparedness of using bicycles is crucial for projects' success, and the bicycle has played a great role in helping to save the lives of mothers and children in many developing countries.

Health care providers in the field,
such as these in Zambia,
use the bicycles to save the lives
of mothers and newborns

The donated bicycles are so popular that demand outstrips supply about fifteen-to-one, and with increasing development all over the world, the bicycle still has a critical part to play in contributing to the wellbeing and happiness of individuals everywhere.