BICYCLES FOR HUMANITY (B4H)

A bike can change a life in a poor country. Yet for millions of people on the lowest incomes, a new bicycle is financially out of reach. Meanwhile, millions of perfectly good bicycles lie unused in North America, Europe and elsewhere in the Western world.

Bicycles for Humanity began in September 2005 with the simple aim of enabling people to raise funds and collect unwanted bicycles to send to reliable partners in developing countries.

In developing countries, Bicycles for Humanity, in partnership with organizations in that country, provides resources and support to make the process accountable and efficient. In developing countries, it works at the grassroots level to ensure that disadvantaged people are empowered through improved access to food and water, employment, healthcare, education and social opportunities.

B4H’s movement continues to grow for 3 simple reasons:

1. It empowers caring entrepreneurial-minded people in Africa to step up and make a difference in their communities.

2. It links people in the western world with like-minded people in Africa. Together, they tell the story of the need, collect the bikes and raise the funds to empower whole communities.

3. Accountability, honesty and humanity are the foundation of our movement. The more the people of Africa demonstrate this, the more support comes forward.

B4H’s focus in 2008 was on distributing the Bicycling Empowerment Centre (BEC), a complete package that addresses bicycle delivery to remote areas, access to tools, training and spare parts.

The Bicycle Empowerment Centre (BEC) program was a huge success with now over twelve of them placed across all of Namibia. In 2009 B4H is launching a Top UP, a program designed to send more bikes to communities that already have a BEC.

Please visit the B4H’s website for information on volunteering, collections and developing country projects. You will come to know the people B4H empower and the many ways that recipients use bicycles to create new opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities.

You will also find ways that you or your community group, service club, school, sport club, religious organization or business can get involved. There are opportunities to support B4H projects by working within your community and through direct connections with partners in developing countries. Help send a BEC to a community in need.

To support your nearest Bicycles for Humanity Chapter, contact the Chapter coordinator at: http://www.bicycles-for-humanity.org/Contact_Us.php

For more information on B4H, please visit: http://www.bicycles-for-humanity.org/

THE CHILDREN OF HOPE LIRA

The Children of Hope Lira is a non-profit organization working in the northern part of Uganda providing support to former child soldiers. The organization was formed by a retired school teacher – Lorna Pitcher, in 2006 to assist with the many needs of children who were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The children’s needs include counselling, education, housing, food and assistance re-uniting with their families where possible. In the event that the child does not know where they are from and his/her immediate or extended family cannot be traced, Children of Hope will place the child in a boarding school to ensure adult supervision, structure and family like support. Most of the children have post traumatic stress disorder and require counselling on a weekly basis.

You can help these children by donating money to support the work of Children of Hope Lira. The money goes directly to the children’s education, upkeep (housing and food), counselling and the cost of locating the families of these children. One year’s sponsorship for a child in primary school is $118 and one year sponsorship for a child in secondary school is $470. Please help these children get the education they deserve.

If you are interested in setting up a pen pal system with the Children of Hope Lira through your school, religious groups, or community organization, please contact:

Lauren at: ChildrenOfHopeLira@yahoo.com or 
Easter Atoo: AtooEaster@yahoo.com
 

For more information, please visit: http://www.geocities.com/childrenofhopelira/home.html or http://www.givemeaning.com/project/ugandanorphansfund

E-mail: ChildrenOfHopeLira@yahoo.com

THE FONDAMU FOUNDATION

Women, specially widows and victims of rape are the most affected by the protracted warfare in DR Congo (DRC), particularly in the Walungu Territory. War cost more than 4millions lives in eastern DRC between 1996 & 2006. More than 700,000 people who live in the villages of the Walungu Territory were affected by the DRC warfare, including at least 140,000 adult women of which at around 20,000 were victims of rape. Many of them lost their husbands, & most people in Walungu were internally displaced by warfare and insecurity. In 2004 people started to going back to the villages but most of their belongings (cattle, goats and land)were already stolen by militia men.

In 2007 FONDAMU – a charity in the war torn DRC- started a revolving micro-credit project to empower women to subsidize their cost of living by running and owning small businesses especially livestock, small commerce and or gardening. The revolving micro-credit project is based on the on the Grameen Bank model. The model makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral. This system believes that the poor have skills that are underutilized. A group based approach is applied which utilizes peer pressure within the group to ensure that the borrowers follow through with their contract terms and repayment. So far FONDAMU has supported 32 groups of 4 women each with a start up fund of US $2,000. The women have now gone through three waves of reimbursements with a 100% rate of success.

FONDAMU’s goal is to reach at least 400 women in 2009, especially widows and victims of rape. FONDAMU intends to purchase a motorbike for the microcredit coach who will be responsible for monitoring the groups of women. The number of women’s groups to be added and the purchase of a motor cycle require US $6,000. Each group is awarded a loan of US $50.

The organization would appreciate help with raising the funds they need to help the additional group of women. A donation of a motorcycle would also be appreciated. For more information on how you can help FONDAMU assist the women of Walungu Territory, please visit the organization’s website at: http://www.fondamu.org/

E-mail: trinto@fondamu.org