The Fourth 'R': Riding

How exciting. Today we are talking about two new areas where Bikes for the World bikes are ending up in Africa. Cameroon and Mozambique. And to be even more specific we can say some of those bikes came from Severna Park and Arnold Maryland.

Two new education projects are receiving bikes through Bikes for the World. Many of the bikes included in the two shipments came from Pedal Pushers and Bike Doctor Arnold, both long time Bikes for the World shop supporters.

Courtesy ChildFund Mozambique

From Director Keith Oberg:

Keeping kids in school is one of the most productive investments that a society can make. Recognizing this premise, Bikes for the World provides students at risk of dropping out the means - in the form of a bicycle - to arrive at school on time, refreshed, and with time savings, thus enabling them to study more, do chores at home, and stay in school.

Providing bikes for education has happened to one degree or another in all of our supported projects going back to our start in 2005. Beginning 2011, however, we supported a 100% education project, Bikes for the Philippines.

Courtesy Wheels of Africa

Now, following on this project's initial success, we are looking for new opportunities to support education, and are particularly interested in Africa, where millions of children drop out of school, especially at the critical transition from village-based primary school to regional secondary schools. The loss of human potential is immense.

Two countries where we are exploring the role of bicycles in education are Cameroon and Mozambique. In Mozambique we will be working with ChildFund International to help distribute bikes to school children and teachers in central Mozambique. The first container is scheduled to be loaded at our Arlington warehouse September 14-15.

Courtesy BIG

Recently a small shipment of bikes, about 30, were sent to Cameroon, piggybacking on a shipment of books by a local Rotary club. The shipment of books and bikes was sponsored by the Cameroon Education Foundation in Kumbo, an English-speaking area in northwestern Cameroon close to the Nigerian border.

Almost all the bikes shipped this past spring have already been reconditioned and given to students in Kumbo. One such student is Alhaji Suleman, a student of GBHS who lives in Rogasah Kumbo.

Friend of Alhaji Suleman

"I will like to thank Bikes for the World for sending bikes to Cameroon for the first time. Like my friends I love bike because it will help me go to school easily.

"[The bike] will help my moment to school which you know is far from my home. Secondly the bike will reduced my transport cost. Thirdly the bike help me to travel in and out of Kumbo."

Alhaji Suleman, bike beneficiary, Kumbo Cameroon.

Along For The Ride

Back in March we told you about a local book shipment heading to Cameroon that was sponsored by Bikes for the World partner Parole Rotary. We got an invitation to come along for the ride, so to speak, when they made space in their container for a few of our bikes. Well, they have arrived!

Here is a short update on their arrival:

The 30 bikes we loaded earlier this year in Annapolis--in conjunction with the Parole Rotary Club’s Books for International Goodwill--have arrived in Cameroon, a west African nation located between Nigeria and Gabon!!  These bikes—which came from DC area donations as well as drop-offs at Bike Doctor, an Arnold MD based bicycle retailer--were “flattened” (prepped) and fitted by BfW operations manager Nick Colombo and executive director Keith Oberg in the narrow spaces around and on top of eight 4’ x 4’ x 6’ pallets of donated books inside a 20’ sea container.

This donation is a pilot effort to promote access to school by young people in northwestern Cameroon.  Given the frequent challenges in clearing bicycles through Customs in African countries, we wanted to “test the waters” in this new country and see how expensive the process would be, and how capable our local partner, the Cameroon Education Foundation, would be.

The photos (above) confirm that the container has been unloaded in Cameroon.  The next step is to learn how the bikes are distributed, how suitable they are, and what their impact will be.  We expect feedback.  Stay tuned.