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2002 Report Archives
from David Peckham, Project Director
1. January- getting ready for third container
2. Spring 2002 An unpublished interview with DirtRag magazine.
3. Update June 2002
4. Project update, field and year end report November 2002
1. January- getting ready for third container
The Village Bicycle Project and partner Bike Works will be sending our
1000th donated bicycle from Seattle to Ghana in February. This will be
the third year that we have sent bikes there.
At this time we are only able to accept good quality mountain bikes for
donation as our storage is maxxed out. Donated bikes do not need to be
in good working order, as the repair work means jobs for people in
Africa. Helmets and parts, including tires and tubes are welcome, as
there is plenty of space for stuffing them in between the bikes inside
the container.
From Seattle the bikes travel by sea to Ghana, where VBP partners will
sell the majority of them to cover shipping costs of more than $5000.
About 100 bikes will be set aside for village bicycle projects to
benefit targeted groups, who will attend workshops on basic bicycle
maintenance, and receive subsidized bikes.
People are very enthusiastic about the workshops. They have lots of
fun and they learn a lot about taking care of their bikes. We get to
work with the exact people we want to help, those I call the productive
poor. These are people who will benefit themselves in such a way with
their bikes that it trickles around to the greater community. For
example, a farmer gets a bike, and is able to transport more produce to
more diverse markets, raising the food supply, and her/his income, which
is spent mostly in the community close to home.
More than 200 people have received bikes during the last two years
through workshops with farm groups, teachers in isolated schools, youth
groups, remote villages, an HIV/AIDS awareness organization, and a
naturopathic healing center.
Village Bicycle Project serves a number of goals. One, we are
addressing the huge wealth gap between America and the poor majority of
the world’s people, where we are able to benefit others with something
that America throws away. Secondly, we’re helping improve access to a
form of transportation more in-line with what most Ghanaians can afford.
Bicycles reduce the need for imported oil and expensive road-building
so the Ghana economy benefits. And then, of course there's the
environmental and health advantage of people moving about on bikes
rather than in motor vehicles.
We are also trying to pay attention to that over-worked term
‘sustainability,’ and what that really means to us. It’s about enduring
benefit in Ghana after VBP is gone. We are working with local business
and learning about raising their technology with better tools, improved
supply lines, local and international networks, and bottom-line
economics. Village bike mechanics are crucial participants in our
workshops. Their expertise is sharpened, they receive tools upgrades,
spare parts, and an important contact with key suppliers in the capital
city.
2. Spring 2002 An unpublished e-interview with DirtRag
magazine.
(At least I never heard about it getting published)
>1) How did VBP start?
I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon and got a good look at transport
problems, and what you could call the missing middle; barefoot mamas
with homemade baskets on their backs walking paved highways with huge
trucks and Mercedes whizzing by, and not much in between.
A bicycle freak I am, and with some inspiration from Bikes-Not-Bombs
in Boston, some lucky breaks and deliberate efforts, it kind of fell
into place.
>2) Why Ghana?
Ghana is unique in West Africa as the only place you can import bikes
duty free; the government recognizes that bikes can help lift the poor.
I also found two Ghanaian based pro-bike groups to host me.
>3) What is Ghana like? What are the bicycling conditions?
The transport middle is not missing as it is in Gabon but the
infrastructure heavily favors the wealthy minority who travel by car.
Conditions are frightful on the highways, bikes are faster than cars in
much of Accra because of congestion, and totally delightful on deserted
roads and the footpaths which criss-cross the country.
>4) How expensive is it to complete a project like this (I know it
>will be hard to, but just estimate I guess).
VBP has a budget this year of $6000
>5) Is funding difficult?
Yes, when I realized that I was willing to do this on credit cards, I
discovered that I could do fundraising. Still I'm not very good at it,
and came up about $1500 short of funds.
>6) How does the purchase program in Ghana work?
Last year we started working with Peace Corps volunteers. They
organize the people, collect half-price, then my Ghanaian partners come
and lead the workshop, 20 people get half-price bikes and a little
maintenance ed. Projects like this are magnets for scammers looking
for fast money from well meaning but naive development workers.
Mandatory attendance helps deter the scammers, because the participants
are told loud and clear about the arrangements, and gain ownership in
the process. (Not to suggest that I am not still naive.)
>7) How can anybody else help?
I've heard that people who come up with project ideas like this one are
rarely the ones who are capable of running them in the long term. We
need volunteers in Africa, organizers, fundraisers, and paperwork
experts, for starters.
>8) Are you working with public officials to look at core problems?
I was trying to until some groups with a lot more clout than VBP began
looking at bike issues in Ghana, namely World Bank and Afribike, an NGO
based in South Africa and connected to ITDP. Policy issues are one of
ITDP's strong suits.
>9) How do you stay optimistic?
I know I'm not going to save the world, and that VBP's work is
miniscule next to Mobil/Exxon, Shell and the major automakers. The
bottom line is connecting with individuals, making a difference in a
few people's lives, and that's all I can really ask for.
>10)Any advice for people looking to do something similar.
Yes, get a hold of us who have gone before you, learn from our mistakes
and listen to our advice, but don’t necessarily follow it!
>
>-Mike
3. Update June 2002
After three years of start-up and growth and learning curve, VBP will
focus on stability and maintenance over the next six to twelve months.
We want to get really good at what we're good at.
The project has had some trials and some errors and has pared down
activities to three main areas. We send used bikes from USA (1), teach
maintenance and repair (rewarding targeted groups the extra bonus of
discounted bikes, 2) and promote the introduction of bike-specialized
tools, (3). The narrow focus also spins off some great collateral
results. Like this: the mechanics in the villages where we hold the
workshops get improved tools, twenty potential new customers, and
business contact with some of the best connected mechanics and parts
sellers in all of Ghana.
In the first half of 2002, our Ghana partners Samson Ayine and George
Aidoo seamlessly processed VBP's third container of used bikes. They
also held five repair workshops in my absence, all organized over the
internet.
GHANA PARTNERS AWARDED SMALL-BUSINESS-DEVELOPMENT LOAN
George and Samson were recently awarded a $1000 loan to purchase tools
for bicycle mechanics, from the Institute for Transportation and
Development Policy. The loan will help them generate capital, introduce
improved tools in the eight-country region, and establish a relationship
with tool exporters in Taiwan. ITDP and VBP each donated $190 in
shipping costs to help jump-start the enterprise. In July, I will be
visiting nearby Togo and Benin with the tools, showing them to
mechanics who've never heard of them, and may or may not have use for
them. George and Samson will take them to the far reaches of
Ghana.
SPONSOR A REPAIR WORKSHOP
Now VBP donors can sponsor village repair workshops. For a $250
donation, your group will be the sponsor of a repair workshop, teaching
basic bike maintenance to twenty people who receive discounted bikes.
Beneficiaries include teachers, farmers, health workers, and frustrated
commuters! Sponsorships from Moscow Food Co-op (two), Tri-State, Moscow
Rotary and a Pullman couple guarantee five workshops in the coming
months.
PARTNERSHIPS ARE THE WAY TO GO
We are working more and more with Peace Corps. PC Volunteers are in
remote, impoverished villages, they know their communities and the
people who live there with them. PCVs make awesome hosts for our
workshops! We've done five workshops with them in the last 13 months,
and five more villages are getting ready.
VILLAGE BICYCLE PROJECT AND GLOBALIZATION
Alas, but the good work VBP is doing gets undone ten thousand-fold by
global policy.
The late-June meeting of the G-8 in Canada promised more aid to Africa,
but tied to democratic and market reforms. The problem is that the
prescribed 'market reforms' means ending supports for domestic product
and tariff reductions on imports, to a much greater extent than the
wealthy donor countries are willing to do. The bitter irony of this
tilted playing field is that open markets threaten to bankrupt hundreds
of thousands of African farmers while they're flooded with subsidized
produce. This was already happening before the recently approved farm
bill in the US, but African leaders fear the situation will worsen.
I've seen truckload after truckload of imported rice leave Ghana's
harbor, and low prices have already put many rice farmers out of
business. The International Monetary Fund and other major lenders won't
allow the government to protect their farmers with import duties.
So, while the Village Bicycle Project helps lift hundreds, the big
picture pushes millions closer to desperation, further ripping the
social fabric.
----
September 11 led me to reassess the project to see how it fit in the
new global landscape. I concluded that we were on the right track and
got some reassurance from a Newsweek interview with Philippine
president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, which appeared in the February 11
issue. She said:
"terrorism and poverty are linked. We have to look at new ways poverty
can be fought- not the old, traditional massive handouts. I like to
call it a hand up for the self-reliant,…"
We got another boost from a story in the March-April 2002 edition of
Mother Jones about Bikes Not Bombs, a Boston group that started sending
bikes to Central America in 1984. Bikes Not Bombs has now sent about
20,000 bikes. Mother Jones said:
"They stopped shipping the bikes for free-charity, they came to see,
devalued both the bikes and the recipients-and they stopped
refurbishing the bikes themselves, instead training local mechanics who
could then parlay their skills into capital."
That's been our philosophy from the start. Infusions of product into
the market and services for targeted recipients, especially the
self-reliant, productive, yet under-resourced people. These are people
for whom the benefits of a bicycle will trickle around to the greater
community.
4. Project update, field and year end report November 2002
With over two thousand bicycles sent from American basements to Ghana’s
streets and roads, three hundred distributed through direct village
workshops, and 1,500 bike tools distributed, the Village Bicycle
Project is fine tuned and running smoothly.
We are now focused on just three programs, those that flourished during
our first three years. I spent a month in Africa this summer and am
pleased to dispatch this update.
PROGRAM NEWS:
1. Sending bikes
We shipped three containers of used bikes and parts this year, over
1300 bikes. Two were from Bike Works in Seattle and the third from
Bikes Not Bombs, a Boston group that has been sending bikes to (mostly)
Central American countries for nearly twenty years.
Our Ghanaian partners George Aidoo and Samson Ayine manage the customs
process and cover the shipping costs. In exchange they sell three
quarters of the bicycles, from a storefront in the capital Accra.
These bikes ease shortages, and keep prices affordable.
This program is self-sustaining, and requires no donor funding for
operating expenses, only the donation of your good used bikes.
Collection sites are in Seattle, Boston, and Moscow, Idaho. We hope to
have a center in the San Francisco area soon.
2. Maintenance Workshops
Our maintenance workshops distribute affordable bicycles in rural
villages and teach the skills needed to maintain them. In exchange for
participating in the daylong class, attendees get a bike for half-price
(maximum $25).
While in Ghana I was able to observe a workshop in the village of
Abura. It was a fantastic opportunity to work closely with our Ghana
educators on fine-tuning the course. As a result:
- We will no longer teach bearing adjustments, as it’s too technically
delicate for beginners. Instead we’ll be spending more time helping
riders identify loose and tight bearings that will quickly spoil, and
urging them to take the problem to the local repairer.
- The village repairers will be active players in the long-term upkeep
of the bikes, so we’re adding some extra time in the program to
familiarize them with these European and North American bikes that are
becoming more common around the country.
- We will no longer limit the workshops to just one village repairer.
Our workshop hosts are Peace Corps volunteers. As resident outsiders,
they are well connected to the community yet unencumbered by family
pressures and owed favors. We have held ten workshops with the Peace
Corps and look forward to their continued participation.
George and Samson, who serve as the workshop teachers, both enjoy the
opportunity to travel, meet new people, teach bike skills, while
earning a living wage.
I also paid visits to two villages where we held workshops in 2001. In
Volivo, I saw 18 bikes and/or their owners. I found that more than half
of the bikes had had breakdowns in the drive train, i.e. the chain,
crank, and/or freewheel. The good news is that the participants were
still very enthusiastic about the bikes, but I find the level of
breakdowns unacceptable. We will need to ensure that the drive trains
of our workshop bikes are solid, even if this means more work for
Ghanaian mechanics, or buying new parts in the bike market!
For a long-term solution, we need to consider using new bikes for the
workshops. This should improve durability and cut problems with
non-compatibility of replacement parts. The cost of new bicycles is the
biggest obstacle.
The workshops need lots of financial support. This is our grassroots
outreach, touching farmers, teachers, small business owners, health
workers, rural students. With the bikes they buy from our workshops,
these villagers can make a living delivering food or water, or spend
more time tending their farms instead of walking up to 12 miles each
way. It’s a helping hand for people with the ambition and conviction to
take a day to study bike repair and invest half the price of bicycle.
The cost of one workshop is $300. This covers: tools for the village
repairer(s), 50% subsidies for 20 bikes, and the cost of training
and transportation. Workshop sponsorships are available to individuals,
organizations, companies, churches, and civic organizations, for a
donation of $300. Won’t you sponsor a workshop today?
3. Tools Program
Our partner-donor ITDP (www.itdp.org) arranged an initial $1000 order
from Taiwan toolmakers, extending the credit to our Ghana managers,
George and Samson. In July I had the pleasure of introducing the tools
in neighboring countries of Togo and Benin. Its always fun to watch the
faces of curious mechanics light up when they discover that, with the
right tools, they can easily and safely repair rear wheels or replace
cranks. I would love to take several months on my own to tour West
Africa by bike, taking tools around; it is enormously gratifying work.
The use of these tools has eased shortages of rear wheels and cranks in
Ghana’s capital Accra over the last two years. Simply put, more of
Ghana’s bikes stay on the road, and fewer end in trash heaps.
In order to get tools flowing to bike mechanics on a sustainable basis,
(i.e. affordable without subsidies), we have to get volumes up. With
larger orders shipping and clearing become a smaller part of the total
cost. Most mechanics outside of Accra still don’t know about these
tools. With donations of $1000 a year, we could gradually expand the
reach of the tools throughout at least six neighboring countries within
three years.
Thank you all for your interest and support.
Project totals through November 29, 2002
2,049 bikes sent to Ghana, in 5 shipments
27 workshops held
338 discounted bikes distributed
424 repair trainees
$3,900 bicycle repair tools test-marketed
Workshop sponsors village
Tri-State Distributors, Moscow ID Adaklu June 2002
Moscow Rotary Club Abura July 2002
Moscow Food Co-op Liati Nov. 25,26 2002
Friends of Gabon upcoming
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