News

The cargo bike makes it to Cambridge

In 2008, Jacob went to Rwanda to help distribute cargo bikes to rural coffee farmers. He made film that documented the impact of the bicycle on a single farmer, his family, and village. What many Americans see as an expensive toy was much more for Pascal and his community.

Now Jacob and his crew are taking the story global. The bicycle can't eradicate poverty, cure HIV/AIDS, or stop global warming. But it can give a farmer a hand up, allow a health worker to reach further, and take one more car off the road.

Click here to help them win the Grant-for-Change contest by voting for their film.

Carol Pratt and Bobbie Jo Carrin discovered Project Rwanda while reading an article in Outside Magazine (September 2008) and immediately emailed us wanting to make a donation.

As an aide for Special Ed children in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, Carol could not afford to make a lofty donation to support our cause, but felt compelled to help in any way she could. She came up with the great idea to pay half the cost of a cargo bike for a farmer, and requested that the farmer pay for, or finance, the rest. A great idea for helping someone in a sustainable and an accountable way!

She recruited her friend Bobbie Jo to make a donation, and together they decided they had enough money to cover half the cost of three bikes – making a difference in the lives of three farmers and their families, instead of just one.

It was a new way of applying a donation on our end, but we were determined to make it happen, and honor their request. And what a novel and thoughtful idea it turned out to be! Instead of helping just one farmer, they pooled their resources, cut costs for the farmers, and were able to reach more people in need of help.

During their recent trip to Rwanda in June, Carol and Bobbie Jo stopped by the Project Rwanda office to personally meet and give the cargo bikes to the very farmers they wanted to help.

Carol and Bobbie Jo understand that every little bit helps. And just a small donation will change the lives of local farmers, and the fate of their families, forever.

To help farmers in need, just $300 dollars purchases a bicycle, spare parts and support. Any donation amount helps put bikes in the hands of those who need them most.

Bike distribution at Rukara Health Center. Pictured: Dr. Steven Phillips, Medical Director for Global Health Issues for ExxonMobil, Rebecca Krueger and Kimberly Coats from Project Rwanda, John Bridgeland, Vice Chairman of Malaria No More, Senior Advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Malaria, and Board member of the Center for Interfaith Action.

Project Rwanda and Malaria No More Team up to Eliminate Malaria Deaths by 2015

MUSANZE, Rwanda – Project Rwanda and Malaria No More (MNM), two non-profit organizations, have teamed up to launch a timely initiative in Rwanda. Their shared goal is to prevent malaria deaths, particularly those of children, through a proven combination of mosquito nets and malaria treatment.

Financed through a generous grant from ExxonMobil, the team delivered 50 Project Rwanda cargo bikes to the village of Rukara located in the eastern province of Rwanda. Health workers from the Rukara Health Facility will use cargo bikes to reach individuals and families endangered by this highly-preventable disease: Malaria is transmitted to humans through infected mosquitoes.

• Bicycles donated to community health workers
• Improved transportation will broaden community outreach and impact
• Program in partnership with Malaria No More and Project Rwanda

RUKARA, Rwanda -- ExxonMobil, in partnership with Malaria No More and Project Rwanda, announced the Bikes for Rukara project today in Rwanda.

The program will provide bicycles to community health workers at the Rukara Health Facility, a faith-based operation in partnership with the government of Rwanda, to help reach more families with their life-saving malaria prevention programs. Bikes for Rukara is part of ExxonMobil's commitment to supporting organizations working to combat malaria.

ExxonMobil's Medical Director for Global Health Issues, Dr. Steven Phillips, is in Rwanda as part of a United Nations delegation to examine the role of faith-based institutions in helping to control malaria and was at the launch of the bicycle project.

Rwanda will for the first time host the annual Tandem Rally, to be held under the theme ‘Mamba Quest’, a new event on the Rwanda tourism calendar whose overall budget amounts to $1m (Approx Rwf550m).

This was revealed yesterday by the Deputy CEO of Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in charge of Tourism and Conservation Rosette Rugamba during a press briefing.

The event is a mountain bicycle rally where two people ride one bicycle with two pedals.

TIME’S 100 MOST IMPORTANT & INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD
Category: Leaders & Revolutionaries

President Paul Kagame

President Paul Kagame, 51, of Rwanda, is the face of emerging African leadership. His reconciliation strategy, management model, empowerment of women in leadership, and insistence on self-reliance, are transforming a failed state into one with a bright future. Rwanda’s rapid improvements have impressed the rest of the continent and Kagame’s influence is exponentially greater than the size that his small country might warrant.

Turn your passion into progress by purchasing Wooden Bike Coffee

Eliminating Poverty
One Cup at a Time.™

Every bag turns wheels, helps families, and transforms Rwanda.

Coffee drinkers embrace great coffee. Coffee farmers toil diligently to provide basic provisions for their families. Cyclists love well-designed bikes. What happens when you combine the three? Wooden Bike Coffee from Rwanda, the easiest way to turn your passion into progress.

In tiny, mountainous Rwanda, it takes commitment to grow cash crops — and ingenuity to get them to market. Until now, cumbersome Stone-Age era wooden bikes have moved potatoes, beans, lumber and coffee cherries to market. A sturdy metal bike represents a better future, but is affordable to only 1 in 40 Rwandans. Unless something changes, most will wrestle a 300 pound load up to six miles on a 50 lb. wooden bike.

Tom Ritchey is one of the original designers of the mountain bike and has a long and fabled association with the sport of mountain biking. Bike components from his company Ritchey Design (www.ritcheylogic.com) will be found on many of the top end mountain bikes that you’ll see at this year’s Absa Cape Epic.

Besides designing mountain bikes he’s also been racing them competitively for over 30 years! At 53 he’s still racing and this year will be his 3rd Absa Cape Epic.

In 2006 he founded Project Rwanda (read all about this exciting bicycle project in Rwanda at www.projectrwanda.com and this year again he’ll be riding in the colours of Project Rwanda along with his Rwandan cycling partner Rafiki Uwimana.