Last summer, 200 bicycles landed in Botswana destined for free distribution to home health care workers treating HIV/AIDS patients in remote rural areas. It was a donation from Kona Biketown Africa — a partnership between Bicycling magazine’s Biketown program, Kona Bicycle Company, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation (BMS). Kona Biketown emerged from Bicycling’s original Biketown program for giving away free bikes to people in the US in order to promote cycling. With their Africa program, they brought together Kona bike designers who could develop a locally-appropriate bicycle for the rough terrain of the backcountry, as well as the power of a large philanthropic organization like BMS to get the program moving. Kona’s Design Group, normally employed in the design of world cup racing caliber bikes, teamed with African experts and other bicycle industry manufacturers in the research and design of the AfricaBike. The result was a simple, durable, comfortable and effective means of transportation that could handle all of the unique social and environmental challenges Africa presents. The bikes revolutionized the home health care workers’ productivity and effectiveness, enabling them to multiply the number of patients they could see in a single day by five or six. But although the… (more)
(Posted by Sarah Rich in Sustainable Development at 12:58 PM)