Five teams of Entrepreneurs for Rural Access (ERA) in Uganda are all set to hit the road on their new Buffalo Bicycles carrying their smart projectors to promote videos on agroecology and organic farming in remote villages, thanks to an innovative partnership agreement between the World Bicycle Relief and Access Agriculture.
“The main aim of the partnership is to empower selected ERA teams to overcome challenges of transportation so that they can do their work efficiently as e-extension service providers,” explained Ezra Masolaki, Access Agriculture Entrepreneur coach for East Africa. “Most of our ERAs have mentioned that having a bicycle can help them a lot, especially in reducing their transportation cost which is very high.”
Rural communities often lack access to good roads and affordable transportation. As bicycles are a good solution to overcome such challenges, the World Bicycle Relief, an international nonprofit, partners with organisations to distribute its Buffalo Bicycles to underprivileged communities to help promote social well-being and improve economic opportunities.
World Bicycle Relief’s heavy-duty ‘Buffalo Bicycles’ are specially designed to carry heavy loads on rough terrains. The organisation also assembles bicycles locally and trains field mechanics to service the bicycles to promote local economies.
As part of the partnership, the ERAs will be supported and coached on how they can develop business opportunities from the use of bicycle, such as transporting bio-inputs or processed food to markets, in addition to using it to organise video screenings.
The ERAs in their turn will share stories and testimonial on how the Buffalo Bicycle has impacted their ERA activities. They will also identify bicycle mechanics and help organise field clinics in communities with teams from Buffalo Bicycle Uganda.
“This partnership will greatly motivate our ERAs, who were selected from areas in Uganda, where bicycles make more sense and also where marketing opportunities for Buffalo Uganda is available,” remarked Ezra. “We will follow up after one year to assess the impact of the distribution of the bicycles.”
The partnership envisages the delivery of 10 Buffalo Bicycles for Uganda, so five more ERAs from the country will be selected later this year, who can benefit from this offer.
