Firefox Bikes looks at #EverydayAdventure as its guiding principle. We believe that our daily lives can be made more interesting and exciting by using cycles to up the adventure and remove the mundane. Naturally, our stand helps us give back to the environment and be eco-friendly. To that, we collaborated with Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation (ABBF), facilitated through Volunteer4India, for the #EverydayAbility movement.

ABBF, founded by Divyanshu Ganatra, has been working at bringing adventure sports to Persons with Disabilities. They have had years of successful events where visually impaired individuals, amputees, hearing impaired and more have participated in events such as rock climbing, paramotoring, scuba diving, and more.

The #EverydayAbility movement began on 29th October, 2017, in Pune (the home city for ABBF). And came to a close on 24th March, 2017, in Sohna. Across 5 months, the movement saw 7 major events ranging from rappelling and rock climbing to confined scuba diving and wall-climbing. We’ve done it all! For the last event, we pushed further and brought in India’s Blind Cricket Team for friendly matches between volunteers, PWDs and the cricket team.

It was interesting to see a sport that is so popular in our country, played with subtle changes that make all the difference to the experience. From small things like bells inside the cricket ball to the swing of the bat just off the ground. Events like these

It’s been a truly amazing journey, starting In today’s day and age, with various minority groups fighting for equality and equal opportunity, it is important to look at an inclusive society for everyone alike. Firefox Bikes strongly believes that a society needs to transcend all boundaries created by differences, celebrate our differences without looking at them as a hinderance. As a continued effort toward this goal, we have partnered with Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation (ABBF) and Volunteer4India for the #EverydayAbility movement. Driven by the core concepts of the partners, Firefox Bikes with #EverydayAdventure and ABBF with adventure sports for everyone, the movement is making its way through India to spread awareness about disabilities and shatter the misconceptions around disabilities.

Together we hope to spread the message that everyone’s lives can be made more interesting with just a little bit of adventure! The movement began in Pune with riding and rappelling, then Mumbai with riding and rock climbing, followed by paramotoring in Delhi. In the new year, we began with riding and wall climbing in Bangalore, in January, followed by riding, rock climbing and rappelling in Hyderabad in February. Our latest destination for the movement was Chennai on 17th February, 2018. Our riders joined the ABBF participants, V4I volunteers and the organisers at Waves Swim Academy, Chennai, for confined scuba diving.

As always, the event began with a briefing session for the participants and volunteers. Mr. Divyanshu Ganatra, founder ABBF, addressed the eager participants and volunteers about the purpose of the movement and the need for PWDs and able-bodied individuals to work together. After the safety instructions, the activities for the day began. It was truly inspiring to see PWDs and able-bodied persons alike trusting our instructors with the gear and going under water. It was interesting to note that some of the struggles were common to every participant irrespective of their physical make up. In the water, the playing field was levelled!

After the excitement and adventure of confined scuba diving, the event ended with a closing circle where everyone spoke about their experiences of the event and learnings. The instructors spoke about it being a fresh experience for them and their take away from the event that adventure sports can be adapted to anyone if we truly wish for it and work together. The volunteers spoke about their learning and growth from the event and the PWDs expressed their gratitude for such events and the opportunity to participate in such activity! It was beyond heartening to see a small example of our end goal - to shatter the misconceptions around disability and create inclusivity. Events like these create experiences and memories that are important in shaping the perspectives of people and give them insights into lives of those who are different from us and yet the same in many ways.

Join us and show your support as we move into the last leg of the movement. While the movement culminates in Delhi come March, we hope the people impacted through the movement continue to spread the word and work toward our common goal – an inclusive society with equal opportunity. We look forward to continuing our adventure with ABBF. Thank you to the volunteers from Volunteer4India for facilitating this movement!