It’s obvious in the third world that so few have the ability to own wheeled vehicles. The ability to transport items such as clean water and goods for commerce is critical to the livelihood and economic development. Organizations like Project Rwanda and World Bike Relief play an important role in promoting and facilitating that type of development.

"Some farmers live 5 or even 10 kilometers away from the washing stations where they need to get their picked coffee from their farm to the washing as soon as possible, within hours preferably” explained Jay Ritchey, project manager for Texas A&M's SPREAD program. “Now imagine thousands of people trying to do this at once, along these muddy steep roads in the middle of the rainy season. The cooperative can only afford a few trucks to assist these farmers. These trucks can cost upwards of $1,900 USD a month, and that comes out of the farmer’s pockets.”

The bicycle is a simple sustainable form of mobility that can multiply a person's efforts and efficiencies in so many ways. A bicycle can help decrease the transportation time of the coffee cherries from 6-12 hours down to 2-4 hours so a person with a bicycle can maintain efficiency that a whole community can leverage from.

Consider that only 1 in 40 people in Rwanda has access to a bicycle. It becomes obvious that the efficiency and quality of life a bicycle can provide is one of the single most important things that a people can have.

“A bicycle multiplies a person’s productivity when you compare it to walking,” according to Dave Neiswander, head of Africa operations for World Bicycle Relief. “We’ve already seen the enormous impact of the bicycles in the day-to-day lives” he added.

In the three years since its inception, World Bicycle Relief has distributed nearly 50,000 new bicycles in support of healthcare, education and economic development.

“Many places have food but they still need access to clean water and commerce. Those are things that easily obtained by the bike” said Project Rwanda founder, Tom Ritchey. “Even and increase (in access) to 1 in 20– the growth in business that could happen would be the most important thing to happen to the third world.”

To learn more about what the bicycle can do to help combat poverty, please visit Project Rwanda and World Bicycle Relief on the web:

www.projectrwanda.org and www.worldbicyclerelief.org