Among the numerous nongovernmental and nonprofit organizations that delivered basic necessities like food and clothes to tsunami-devastated areas in the Tohoku region, the NPO Bikes for Japan did its part by delivering refurbished bicycles to survivors living in shelters.

Bicycle repairman Daiki Mochizuki from Saitama Prefecture and Tokyo resident Henry Osborn started the nonprofit organization to collect mainly secondhand bikes and put them in the hands of people living in shelters in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures.

So far the group has gathered and delivered about 500 bikes to tsunami-ravaged communities.