Raheena Abdul-Azeez is a junior high
school student in the Asokore Mampong municipality of the Ashanti region who commutes
a long distance from home to access education.
She spends at least an hour daily to go
to school and same period to return home after classes; a routine that impacts
adversely on her academic performance.
Raheena is among the first set of 30 students,
education and health workers benefiting from an intervention by the African
Bicycle Contribution Foundation (ABCF), a US-based non-profit corporation,
distributing free Ghanaian-made bamboo bikes.
“I’m happy because the bicycle will
help me to come to school early and if I come to school early, I’ll find some
time to study,” said an elated Raheena.
The ABCF is passionate about empowering
people in need and and has a mission to generate funding to underwrite the
distribution of bicycles to needy students, families and transport-dependent
smallholder farmers, health workers and others on the African continent.
In Ghana, the Foundation has made a
commitment to finance the free distribution of 2,500 bicycles in its first five
years of operation.
“The free distribution of these sturdy,
world-class, bamboo bikes to under-resourced populations in Ghana is just the
first stage of our Foundation's program,” said A. Bruce Crawley, chairman of ABCF.
“In addition, we want to orchestrate technology-facilitated, inter-continental
workshops and seminars between students and entrepreneurs in Ghana and their
counterparts in the U.S”.
Two
multi-stakeholder bicycle distribution events have been held in Kumasi and
Accra, which attracted former President John Agyekum Kuffour, representatives
of embassies and ministers of state.
The ABCF was represented by Executive
Director, Patricia Marshall Harris and ABCF board member, Florence Torson-Hart,
a Ghanaian-born senior financial advisor with Merrill Lynch in the U.S.
“Support of this kind is seen as a
major driver of equitable social development and gender mainstreaming, while
narrowing the wide economic gap,” said Mr. Kuffuor.
The events were hosted by Bright
Generation Community Foundation (BGCF) and the Ghana Bamboo Bike Initiative
(GBBI), a Kumasi-based manufacturer of the “EcoRide” bamboo bicycles.
Other
partners include Values For Life, The Respect Alliance, VillageBicycle Project
and the U.S.-Ghana Chamber of Commerce.
According to Bernice Dapaah, CEO and
founder of GBBI, the partnership will not only help meet the transportation
needs of rural economies, but create jobs and sustain livelihoods.
“We’re so happy because when they buy
the bicycles from us, we’re going to create a lot of employment for the youth;
the more we’re able to sell, the more we’re able to produce and we’re also
happy that the bicycles that they’re buying are being donated to school children
who walk miles to go to school,” he stated.
The Foundation also wants to facilitate
the establishment of new trade channels in the U.S to expand the company’s size
and workforce, and its capacity for export around the world.
By Kofi Adu Domfeh
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