At the secondary school of Gafanha da Nazaré there is a bicycle workshop!

This Eco-School is located in Gafanha da Nazaré, one of the cities of Portugal where the bicycle is most used in daily journeys home-work and home-school. According to the national standards the school is the one where more students and school staff use this type of transport on a daily basis.

In the bicycle parking lot there are about 350 bicycles daily (about 50% of the students). With such number of bicycle users it was necessary to find a way to repair their bikes by themselves! And so the project GafeBikeLab came up, which has the support of the City Hall of Ílhavo and in close collaboration with the University of Aveiro, through its Technology Platform for Bicycle and Soft Mobility. The project also found the support of some local companies and several partners of the local educational community.

The GafeBikeLab projet engages a group of 10 students aged 13 to 17, working there almost daily. They are coached and coordinated by a senior teacher, where they often carry out small free repairs on bicycles. In the remaining time they build bikes from used materials that are offered by different people in the community. This project has been successful to engage students with bikes and their benefits.

In 2019, several bicycles were built and all of them have been offered to students in need, so they can use it to go to school. Some have also been offered to the City Hall so that employees can run errands around the city by bike. The GafeBikeLab also aims to support School of Gafanha da Nazaré to educate students, both in terms of formal and informal skills. Students are able to develop projects and activities that involve other community agents, schools, and other institutions in the region. The activities are developed with the collaboration of teachers of various subjects and are scheduled and integrated in the school annual activities plan defined together with the students.

The central theme assumed by the GAFe BikeLab is "safely using bicycles" and therefore several activities are promoted both in school and in the community to raise awareness. Students participate in various bike talks with selected audiences and bicycle showrooms which are held in different spaces in school.