The Ride for Rwanda is a trans-continential bike ride
taking place in the summer of 2008. Six riders will be
taking a route from Anacortes, WA to New York, New York a
3,700 mile trip. The purpose of the ride is to raise
awareness and funds for
Project Rwanda.
Watch some videos about Project Rwanda and what they
do
here.
Project Rwanda is an organization "committed to furthering
the economic development of Rwanda through initiatives
based on the bicycle as a tool and symbol of hope." Project
Rwanda is currently working toward this goal on four
different levels.
- Building Awareness for Rwanda - The country and its people, as a tourism and cycling destination, through the development of an eco-tourism industry: annually (September '06 was 1st event) conduct a multi-day event attended by Rwanda's, US and European riders to promote this concept.
- Special Bike Designs - Project Rwanda is actively engaged in the design, development and consults with implementation of special use bicycles to address specific needs within the country.
- Bike Distribution - Project Rwanda plans to establish bike distribution to needed organizations that do not have existing grants to purchase bikes. This program is under development and will involve a "hand up", not a "hand out" through a micro financing mechanism which subsidizes the cost of purchasing the bike and provides micro financing locally but requires repayment of a percentage of the bike cost over a period of time at low interest rates. It is envisioned that this micro financing mechanism, once established, will be rolled out to other African nations and non African developing nations. The need for special use bikes worldwide is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions; the bike is an affordable, practical, environmentally friendly solution to local transportation and hauling needs.
- National Pride - Select, coach, train, equip and promote a Rwandan National Cycling Team with the goal of successful participation in International Cycling competition as a means of promoting this industry within Rwanda and providing increasing awareness and national pride for Rwanda internationally. Check out this link for a video about the team.