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Our film Ayamye* is screening Saturday night - in Program 6 at 7:30. The film is about people in rural Ghana who obtain used bikes from Boston via The Village Bicycle Project. They are taught basic mechanics to maintain the bikes - a sustainable solution that works. The bikes are a valued resource to the whole community. The film is 40 minutes and full of beautiful West African music. I hope you can make it. Tickets are available at
Sounds great!
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For the ear oriented:
"Today's answer is African country of Ghana, where an initiative to promote the use of bicycles has attracted thousands of used bikes donated from around the world."
i read an article about this cause in bicycle magazine a few issues ago. awesome stuff. those thorns out there are 100x more brutal than anything we could ever imagine dealing with! and the heat!
I can tell you, in the capital the deep open sewers and no traffic laws are worse than any puncture flat. Out in the community where we filmed, salt and sand contributing to corrosion would also out-weigh thorns. As for sharp pointy things, the mozzies and their contribution to the spread of Malaria is the biggest concern. Ghana is an amazing country - Sammy and George, who run the shop in Accra that the VBP operates through are amazing guys. Currently there is a new scope to the VBP which is in development with custom carbon guru Calfee. When this new idea takes root, bamboo bikes would be built in a Ghanaian factory achieving a long time goal of bike/sustainability activists in Africa, namely bikes built locally, by locals for locals. VBP is, at it's core, 3 people operating on an annual budget of 11k. 2 Ghanaians, one committed American and several thousand bikes distributed in remote areas where they have proved to change not only individual lives but entire communities. That's the kind of NGO that should be supported.
Peter Kahugu of Banana Hill just outside Nairobi makes a living using his bicycle.
And no, he is not a professional cyclist.
AfriGadget reporter Afromusing and I had an opportunity to interview Peter who has modified his bicycle with a belt, a set of tensioning pulleys and a grinding stone to make it a knife-sharpening machine. By kicking the bike up onto its stand and engaging a gearing system, he is able to use “leg-horsepower” to drive a grinding wheel and sharpen knives while “on the move”.
Peter has been at this for 2 years now and he makes about Kshs 500 ( app. 10 US$) a day by riding his mobile workshop from client to client sharpening all their knives as he goes. The grinding stone he uses has lasted an astounding 2 years and he has had to replace his drive belt a couple of times but that is as simple as cutting up a long strip of rubber from an old car or bicycle tire inner tube.
Be sure to click though on the image for video on YouTube of the Peter and his bike in action.
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