 |
|
|
PDF Version Now Availabale
You can download a PDF version of this report here. (file size = 566 kB)
|
Emily Lin, (above) watches teacher Emmanuel
Azuri (right) discussing derailleur adjustment,
at the Glona Academy in Labadi, Ghana.
Photo by Danny Scarangella.
|
Earn a Bike Takes Off !
The highlight of 2004 was the launching of Earn-a-Bike in three Ghana
schools. The programs are the initiative of Emily Lin, a volunteer
from Boston, who spent a full year organizing, coordinating, training
teachers, and building the programs. Today eight teachers are
certified, and 63 students have earned bikes that they themselves have
rebuilt.
Before joining VBP, Emily taught Earn-a-Bike to inner city kids at
Bikes Not Bombs, one of our shipping partners.
EAB is particulary exciting for several reasons. More than just clean,
cheap, reliable transport, these 63 young people have a new career
option, in bike repair. As difficult as it is to get work in Ghana this
is no joke. Women teachers on bikes is another giant little step, as
they give the young girls an expansion of their possibilities, and yes
we may someday see women mechanics in Ghana.
Emily focused on women and girls, mandating that more than half the
trainers and students be female, in an environment where less than
3% of cyclists are women. Lizandra Vidal made this observation in
June:
When I came to Golokuati the second time I saw more girls using
bicycles than I have ever seen in any single Ghanaian community. It is
undoubtedly the effect of Emily’s program. Most of the girls I saw
riding had gotten their bikes in the first EAB program, but not all -
so her programs even had a halo effect that is encouraging more women
to ride. This is how change happens - and Emily Lin has unquestionably
been an agent of change in Ghana.
The Ghana EAB schools are at Golokuati, 90 miles north of Accra;
Kopeyia,100 miles east, and Glona Academy in the Accra suburbs. The
Kopeyia school is partly funded by a donor group in New Jersey, who has
regularly supported bike projects since 2000, including VBP. In
Golokuati, EAB is now part of the curriculum at the Ve-ICCES technical
school, alongside secretarial, carpentry, tie dye/batik, and sewing.
Golokuati also has a history with VBP, having hosted One-day repair
workshops since 2001. The Glona Academy is privately run by Ghanaians
providing schooling for orphans and street children.
For 2005 we are committed to continuing the programs at the level Emily
started. Currently, 30 students are studying Earn-a-Bike in the three
schools. In the long run, we hope for the development of a bike repair
program for technical schools throughout Ghana.
We are very excited
for the great beginning by Emily and the teachers, led by Simon Akutu at
Kopeyia, Tsatsu Kufoalor at Golokuati, and Emmanuel Azuri at Glona.
Emily plans to visit Ghana again in November 2005.
Earn-a-Bike was made possible by a grant from the Jordanna
Foundation.
|
People and their bicycles
In August 2003 we held a One-day workshop in Gomoa Assempanyin. 20
people received bikes for half-price. A year later, Lizandra Vidal
went there and interviewed several
people about their bikes.
|
Esther Drayi, opening Beatrice’s front
hub. Both got bikes from Earn-a-Bike
program.
|
Director’s trip to Ghana
Introducing the Advanced Class
By Dave Peckham
I went to Ghana in September with several goals in mind. Emily was
soon to return home to the US after spending a year starting up
Earn-a-Bike. I needed to be introduced to the program and the people,
and to work with Emily to figure out how the program can continue
without her leadership. That’s the only reason I would chose to miss
fall in Idaho!
Other things I wanted to do were:
• Study our shipments, are we sending the right stuff, is it getting
where it needs to go, efficiently reaching people?
• Introduce and re-introduce tools in neighboring French-speaking
countries, build and nurture networks.
• Look at the effectiveness of our one-day workshops. Are our bikes
making a difference for people in the long term? Are people learning
anything of value in our classes? Do village mechanics have adequate
access to parts?
The short answer is yes, its working, amazingly well, and some of these
points are covered elsewhere. Something new also came out of this
trip:
I’ve always considered the one-day workshop as simply an awakening to
bike repair, and pondered what could be easily done to take it the next
step. Around the village of Golokuati we’ve done about ten workshops
and have Earn-a-Bike at the technical school, adding up to over 200
bikes we’ve supplied. So in late October, we held our first advanced
class. All who had been in our programs were invited, and we’d have
tools available for half-price. Given the late notice, I hoped for 5
or 6 people. There were 25.
They were eager students, with many good questions. One of the
Earn-a-Bike graduates, Esther Drayi, 17, (see photo) dazzled me with
her mechanical ability, rebuilding her friend’s front hub. We sold
$70 worth of tools, (for $35) before running out of several types.
With tire pumps at a little over a dollar, crescent wrenches for $1.50
and patch kits for 25 cents, there are a lot of new tools in Golokuati.
One man, Yao Brofo, said he’s going to start a repair shop with his
$5.50 investment.
Now, in every place where we’ve trained 100 or more people we’ll offer
the advanced class. People who want to actively take care of their
bikes will now have the tools to do so.
|
The basic set of tools, that most
African repairers had never seen
before. These tools substitute hammer
and chisel, and improve mechanics’
ability to confidently make repairs
without breaking parts. We sent more
than 2600 of these tools this year |
Tools for Ghana’s Neighbors
By Lizandra Vidal, October 15
David and I spent 3 days in the Ivory Coast selling bicycle tools at
the local markets. The tools are imported from Taiwan, and then sold in
the West African markets at less than cost. Tool distribution is an
important part of VBP’s efforts to help improve the sustainability of
the bicycle as a viable means of transportation in West Africa.
Despite arriving on the same day as a violent demonstration between
young patriots and the French military and being faced with a strike by
market vendors over recent human rights violations by the local police -
the visit to the Ivory Coast was successful. We were able to distribute
over 100 tools to several bicycle dealers. One of them even took the
information for our Taiwanese tool supplier, he hopes to cut out the
middle man and go straight to the source. This would be a huge step
towards making quality tools available in the Ivory Coast.
This fall VBP will sell tools at less than cost in a total of 5 West
African countries. David recently travelled to Lome, Togo and Cotonou,
Benin - where he met similar success as found in Abidjan. We will soon
travel to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.
David hopes to be able to keep a steady supply of tools available in
Accra, so that when some of the foreign bike dealers come for bikes and
parts they will also be able to buy tools.
|
The Coming Year
2005 Budget Notes
A couple of things shifted our general goal of modest and easy growth in
2004, most notably the starting of EAB. For the coming year we want to
nurture and stabilize EAB, with three sessions at the three
schools.
The tools program, with its 400% growth, still only represents an
added expense of $500, because of economies of scale, smoothened
customs processing and better understanding of what tools Africa wants
most.
The addition of Advanced classes is a small cost, as the class simply
tags along with our established One-day workshops.
If we can raise $1,000 for salary I should be able to take enough time
off from my job to write grants and keep the website updated
regularly!
For those of you who live in the Palouse, VBP is a great opportunity to
think globally and act locally, helping an international aid group run
by people you know, who are accountable to the hometown!
For you donors elsewhere in the world, you can see by the numbers that
we do a lot to improve access to bikes in Africa for small money.
Thanks to the 78 Palouse area folks, and the 31 people from California
to Maine to Australia who donated money to VBP in 2004. You all
really helped the project continue growing little by little.
Your donations are tax-deductible, make checks out to:
Village Bicycle Project, and send to:
PCEI
PO Box 8596
Moscow, ID 83843
|
Moscow, Idaho our hometown, sent its
first container to Ghana last summer;
370 bikes, and lots of spare parts.
Here volunteers Brian Moro and friend,
Brian Gardner, Tina and Earl Aldrich,
(owners of Paradise Creek bicycles) are
breaking down some o
|
Who We Are
The Village Bicycle Project is a project of the Palouse-Clearwater
Environmental Institute. Our mission is improving access to bicycles in
Africa.
David Peckham, VBP Director
Emily Lin, Earn-a-Bike Coordinator
George Aidoo, Samson Ayine, Poject managers in Ghana
Lizandra Vidal, volunteer, project host at Elmina, research and
documentation
Tom Lamar, PCEI Executive Director
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES-- Numerous at home and abroad, email vbp@pcei.org or call 509-330-2681.
Visit us online at: http://www.pcei.org/vbp
Thanks to Tom Lamar for help with design and layout, Liza for writing
and photos, Danny for photos, and David Vollmer for offering to post
this to the website!
|
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ-- Why don’t you give bikes away? By selling them at
workshops (half-price) you’re not reaching the people most in
need.
Identifying need is not simple and straightforward. Free stuff is too
appealing to smooth talkers and cons. How do you validate need? The
market simplifies the problem. No wealthy person anywhere wants to
spend a day at a workshop getting their hands dirty for a half-price
bicycle. But to someone low on the economic ladder, this a good deal.
Also people generally don’t appreciate something they haven’t worked
for.
Charity perpetuates a culture of dependence. The western development
worker is traditionally looked at as a source of gift, and that’s
unhealthy. We want to be helpful, not Santa Claus.
FAQ-- So how do poor people even afford your discounted
bikes?
It is true that we don’t reach the poorest of the poor. If we could
positively identify them and give them bikes, they would most likely be
sold. Then we’d have this disconnect from the end user, who we want to
have some skills to be able to take care of their bikes.
The people we try to reach are what I call the productive poor; clever,
hard working people who are stuck in poverty at least in part because of
lack of access to transport. When they have reliable bikes they are
more productive, and the bikes help lift them economically. And if we
can help people be more productive in their villages, (rural
development) we are helping the society as a whole. (DP) |
|
|
