Project Rwanda is a non-profit charity that Edmonton-based Achille Karuletwa has been appointed it's Kigali based director. The charity is helping coffee farmers in Rwanda replace the wooden bikes they use to take coffee cherries to washing stations. Improved speed keeps the coffee cherries fresher and makes them more valuable.

Two-wheel vehicles will make trip from fields to bean-washing site far less arduous

Ritchey envisages a new bike industry within Rwanda, making ownership possible for the majority of Rwandans who can't afford imported bikes.

Rwandan coffee took a major step forward in 2001, when with international assistance farmers began investing in specialty coffee.

Rare, prestigious heirloom "bourbon" varieties of Arabica Coffee now reign.

Karuletwa says part of his organization's mission is to find new markets for Rwanda's coffee through its Wooden Bike Coffee arm. (It can be bought on-line at www.projectrwanda.org.)

Karuletwa, born in Uganda to Rwandan parents, said President Paul Kagame and his government have done a good job in rebuilding Rwanda and giving people hope for the future.

He is one of seven children in a family that moved around in Africa because of political turmoil.

His parents fled Rwanda for Uganda in 1959. But a decade later, Uganda's Idi Amin's, and then Milton Obote, created such bad conditions for Rwandan refugees that the family moved to Kenya.

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