Project Rwanda was founded by Tom Ritchey after he visited Rwanda in 2005, out of his passion for cycling, a love of Rwanda’s natural beauty, and the inspiring stories of hope of the Rwandan people. Tom’s trip resulted in a realization that the bicycle can be an important tool in rebuilding a country, building national pride and addressing local issues facing Rwanda and other African nations. Project Rwanda currently operates with a small group of like minded Board members who all donate their time and energy to the project. Donations are primarily used to support actual projects, with only a small portion going toward the occasional need for temporary help with clerical and graphic design functions. We estimate currently that 90% of donations are used in support of actual projects. Project Rwanda has no permanent salaried staff, offices or vehicles and utilizes other agencies’ staff on the ground in Rwanda to assist with the local support of our projects.
Project Rwanda Mission Statement
Project Rwanda is committed to furthering the economic development of Rwanda through initiatives based on the bicycle as a tool and symbol of hope. Our goal is use the bike to help boost the Rwandan economy as well as re-brand Rwanda as a beautiful and safe place to do business and visit freely.
Project Categories
Build Awareness for Rwanda:
Increase awareness for Rwanda, the country
and its people, as a tourism and cycling destination, through
the development of an eco–tourism industry: annually (September
’06 was 1st event) conduct a multi–day event attended by Rwanda’s, US
and European riders to promote this concept.
Learn more about the Wooden Bike Classic here »
 Special Bike Designs: Project Rwanda is actively engaged
in the design, development and consults with implementation of special use
bicycles to address specific needs within the country. Project
Rwanda locates a foreign vendor to manufacture these bikes cost effectively
for export to Rwanda (Landed cost approximately $100 — $200).
In this role PR serves as a facilitator, consultant, designer and advisor
regarding the entire scope of the project. A collaborating agency
actual funds the purchase, delivery and distribution of the bikes.
The first undertaking is for 2,000 special hauling long bikes
for use by coffee farmers to haul their crop to the washing station
collection point more quickly which increases the price they receive for
the coffee cherries as this is a very time sensitive step. This project
is in conjunction with the Texas A & M University and their Rwanda
management team, USAID/SPREAD, which funded the actual cost of the
bikes.
Learn more about the Coffee Bike project here »  Bike Distribution: Project Rwanda plans to establish bike distribution
to needed organizations that do not have existing grants
to purchase bikes. This program is under development and will involve a “hand
up”, not a “hand out” through a micro financing mechanism
which subsidizes the cost of purchasing the bike and provides micro financing
locally but requires repayment of a percentage of the bike cost over a period
of time at low interest rates. It is envisioned that this
micro financing mechanism, once established, will be rolled out to other African
nations and non African developing nations. The need for special use bikes
worldwide is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions;
the bike is an affordable, practical, environmentally friendly solution to
local transportation and hauling needs.
Learn more about the Bike Distribution here »  -
National Pride: Select, coach, train, equip
and promote a Rwandan National Cycling Team with the goal of successful participation
in International Cycling competition as a means of promoting this industry
within Rwanda and providing increasing awareness and national pride for Rwanda
internationally.
Learn
more about the Rwandan National Cycling Team project here »
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