Project Rwanda uses bikes to rebuild
EDMONTON - Specially designed bikes are replacing hand-carved wooden bikes in Rwanda's coffee fields and helping a nation recover from civil war and genocide that claimed nearly one million lives.
"A bike may seem an unusual tool to use in a country's economic development," said Achille Karuletwa.
"But it is the ideal transport tool to help rebuild the coffee business destroyed in the 1994 country-wide genocide."
The charity was founded by northern California's Tom Ritchey, co-creator of the mountain bike. Visiting Rwanda in 2005, he thought specially designed bikes could help coffee farmers.Edmonton cyclist Alex Stieda, a friend of Ritchey's, discovered how effective his buddy's coffee bike could be when he took part in Project Rwanda's Wooden Bike Classic races in 2006. The races, a fundraiser to raise awareness of the country, began in 2006 and attract participants from around the world.
"Coffee is Rwanda's most important cash crop," said Stieda. "Most coffee is moved from about 500,000, family-owned mountain farms to lowland washing stations by whatever means humanly possible.
"Only about one in 40 people can afford a bike to help with transportation. So the Rwandans created their own wooden bike-like scooters. They scavenge what parts they can and often hew their scooters from logs."
Their scooters had no configurations similar to real bikes. For traction, they sometimes hammered old car tires onto rims with nails, or stapled them.
Stieda said it takes determination to a push a 23-kilogram wooden scooter-bike with a 136-kilogram load of coffee cherries several kilometres to a washing station. Coffee cherries begin fermenting as soon as they are picked, and the longer it takes to transport a load to a washing station the lower the price it fetches.
Ritchey's bikes are low-maintenance and robust and designed with a large cargo area over the rear wheel. "The expense to own, maintain and fuel a truck is not an economically viable option," he said.
"Besides breaking down often, trucks have difficulty dealing with the dirt roads, especially when muddy."
Ritchey used contacts in the cycling world to build bikes and subsidize their cost. A farmer can buy one for approximately $150 through micro-financing institutions. The loan is repaid within two to three years, using the extra cash earned for better-quality cherries, quickly delivered.
Ritchey notes the bikes are not just used to transport coffee cherries but also make an excellent way to transport potatoes, beans and lumber.
"The HIV and other health-worker programs in place in Rwanda and other parts of Africa are also seeing the bike as a really important tool in delivering aid, assistance and comfort to their beneficiaries," said Ritchey.
