World Bicycle Relief

Random web surfers, colleagues, friends, family, elected officials, all protocols observed, welcome to my post from Zambia. I arrived in Lusaka on Sunday morning after a few hours sorting out shipping and a fun final night out at Casablanca. After checking into the Blue Crest Gueshouse, I headed out to the town which seems to amount to some streetlights (that people actually paid attention to), some smiling Zambians, one tall buidling and a lot of rain. I quickly gave up, grabbed some beers and accomplished something amazing: gaining a basic understanding for that crazy game they call cricket.

On Monday I started volunteering with World Bicycle Relief which, as I've said before, is a really cool organization. Their basic idea is that by giving people quality bicycles, you can greatly increase the distance people can travel and the amount they can carry while reducing the amount of time these tasks take. In Zambia, they have given bikes to volunteer HIV/AIDs caregivers which has enabled the caregivers to visit more people, more often with more supplies.  The bikes also provide an added incentive to the volunteer caregivers since they can use them to help earn their livelihood. In addition to the donated bikes, WBR has trained bicycle mechanics, giving a one week course in business and technical skills, all the necessary tools and, most importantly, customers to 450+ mechanics around the country. 

The bikes are pretty simple with just one gear and kick back brakes (probably the most complicated piece are the bells) and are specially built to last out in rural Africa (4-ply tires, heavy duty stands). WBR is constantly working to improve the bike, this week they are getting in new pedals and saddles (seats) that performed better in their ongoing field tests. In a pretty cool 'world is flat' story, the information from rural Zambia came back to engineers here and in the US who then found better parts from India and the Czech Republic which then get shipped through South Africa and eventually end up back at one of seven assembly locations across Zambia. 

WBR is wrapping up their work with the HIV/AIDs caregivers (a consortium project called RAPIDS), and is looking to donate bicycles to schools in rural areas where students and teachers walk 5+ miles each day and to also get involved with offering bicycles through microfinance loans. In all of these projects, they are working with established partners which allows them to keep overhead costs to a minimum and to be part of wider, collaborative programs.

So its been a good few days learning about what WBR does, how they do it and helping out where I can. While my initial idea of being back in a metal fab shop for a week hasn't exactly panned out, I've helped out a bit with some bicycle repair and assembly and been able to help with a few technology questions they've had. I also went to the Zambian Caregiver Appreciation Day in Lusaka that featured speeches from the first president of Zambia and the new US ambassador. It was a cool ceremony, really nice to see some people making a direct impact and we got to listen to hilarious diplomatic introductions (like the one above). 

Today is Thanksgiving so we've got a dinner lined up and then tomorrow I am headed down to Victoria Falls and eventually Zimbabwe. Anyone have suggestions for avoiding cholera (wish that was a joke)?

Happy Thanksgiving!