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|  Chapter One: Let the Movement Begin
It began by Googling the phrase “Who needs bikes?”
With the simple search on the information superhighway, Pat Montani discovered the great need for two wheeled transport in Africa. He quickly compared the need in Africa with the fact that thousands and thousands of bicycles were being left idle and unused each year in the garages of his native North American communities.
A seasoned entrepreneur in the business world, Mr. Montani saw a great opportunity to use his private sector skill set in the social sector, and so, with the support of family and friends, he hatched Bicycles-For-Humanity (B4H) as a recognizable name that could tell the story of how bicycles can changes lives in Africa and show community groups they could make a tangible difference in the world by collecting the unused bicycles in their area and shipping them to emerging rural communities.
B4H is not a non-profit organization, a charitable organization or any type of company. It has no paid staff or organizational budget. Instead, it is as an open source movement, an affiliated network of like-minded individuals collecting and shipping bicycles to developing communities, sharing knowledge and tips along the way. The movement started in 2006 with one container of bicycles but has grown wildly since.
Chapter Two: Empowerment Networks & Empowerment Centers
All movements have direction, and the B4H movement found its path with Michael Linke and the Bicycle Empowerment Network – Namibia. Mr. Linke was a grassroots leader able to articulate the need, "People are dying in Namibia because they don't have transport…It's about access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunities…In Namibia there is an apartheid-era transportation system that is manifestly unjust. Yet the public transportation system is ineffective, while private taxis are expensive."
So B4H began to ship bicycles to Michael in Namibia to try and improve the transport problem, but the movement quickly ran into a problem. The bicycles were shipped to Windhoek, the capital, to be fixed up and then distributed to different partners around the country. This proved uneconomical as only a small number of bicycles could be processed and the transport costs were expensive to distribute. In addition, most Namibian towns and villages had no bike repair or maintenance services for the bicycles which were different than those locally available.
Namibian Home Based Care Volunteers involved in BEN
Together B4H and BEN devised the Bicycle Empowerment Centre (BEC), the idea that an entire bicycle workshop could be shipped from North America to any remote rural village in a 40 foot shipping container filled with bicycles, tools and spare parts. Upon arrival into the African community, the shipping container was converted into workshop space with windows and roof and the resources inside was the capital to start operating. With a physical space and resources to operate, BEN provided the proper trainings to allow for local maintenance, and soon the BEC model identified by BEN and B4H spread through Namibia.
Bicycle trailer produced by BEN Namibia BEC (2007)
Chapter Three: Ottawa, Thunder Bay and Colorado
 With documented success of the BEC model, B4H chapters spread to diverse communities including Ottawa and Thunder Bay in Canada, and Colorado in the US. Each chapter is lead by amazing individuals like Seb Oran in Ottawa, who has partnered with the House of Love for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (HLOVC) in Namibia. With bicycles shipped from Ottawa, the HLOVC workers are able to visit children more often, take clothes and bread from their sewing project and bakery to market for sale, fetch firewood and clean water, transport sick children to the clinic and save huge amounts on taxi fares for general transport. When Seb realized that there were some extra spaces when loading the BEC she worked with a local soccer club to collect 400 soccer jerseys, 100 shorts, 80 soccer balls, shin guards and socks were collected and packed with the bikes
B4H Thunder Bay, lead by Steve Klassen, has shipped 950 bikes to Africa in just their first year. The chapter exemplifies what spreading the word of bicycles for Africa can achieve. Through their hard work they found a partner in Young’s Cycles, a Thunder Bay bike store that recently closed its doors after many years of serving the community. Instead of letting their inventory go to waste, Young’s Cycles donated their entire inventory including hundreds of bikes, many spare parts and valuable tools to the B4H cause. B4H has since used this donation as the basis for its recent 2nd shipment to Africa.
Bicycles for Humanity – Colorado, the first U.S. B4H Chapter to send bicycles to Namibia, was formed by Josh Pace, Rodd Granger, and Keenan Gates in September of 2007 to begin to form a bridge of community sharing between the front range of Colorado and healthcare workers serving those in need in Africa. They recently traveled to the Namibia to check on their BEC!
Chapter Four: The Road Ahead to Uganda
 So far, the B4H movement has been embraced in Namibia, a country of roughly 3 million people. B4H chapters are now looking towards Uganda, a landlocked East African nation of roughly 22 million people. The movement to Uganda is being lead by a new B4H chapter in Calgary founded by Walter Rudolph and his wife Colleen. They created the chapter in memory of their son who was a bike enthusiast and mechanic at a local shop. The Calgary Team exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit of B4H by tapping many different sources for bikes, including a local university, a homeless shelter, local bike shops and simply sitting at the bottom of a popular mountain biking hill and chatting with the riders as they reached the bottom. This first B4H shipment is set to depart for Uganda in early in 2009.
(Calgary B4H BEC destined for Uganda)
Learning from the work of BEN in Namibia, Two Wheeled Foundation working within the Uganda Bicycle Empowerment Network with partners in North America and Uganda will be working to adapt the BEC model for new communities. Through the Cycle for Health Initiative and a focus on innovative pedal powered devices and green jobs, the B4H movement is sure to gain traction in Uganda and continue to grow and flourish as community leaders in North America connect with entrepreneurs in East Africa. Learn more about the B4H Movement and stay tuned to TWF for more information about the excitement in Uganda. | |
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