09.29.10 | Winneba Ghana: OVF Ghana Receives 102 Bikes from Giant Bike Taiwan

The Giant bikes at the Winneba Open Digital Village (WODiV)

oneVillage Foundation Ghana has taken delivery of 102 slightly used bicycles, 51 pairs of brand new bicycle tires, and some maintenance tools, from Giant Bikes Taiwan. The bikes and components are to be used to implement OVF’s Taiwan Bike Bike Ghana (TBBG) Project.

TBBG is a newly introduced project that developed from oneVillage Foundation’s (OVF) annual EcoTour Service and Learning Program (ESLP). The ESLP is designed under the Economy, Ecology & Education Pillars of the One Village Initiative (OVI), which is the methodology used by OVF to address world urgent issues. The ESLP Program offers a platform for Volunteers from around the world to come to Ghana and volunteer needed services in the operational areas of OVF. Currently, the program is currently executed in collaboration with the National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Taiwan.

Project Goals

The TBBG project is designed and will be executed under the Health, Ecology, and Economy pillars of the OVI, to achieve amongst others, the following:

  • Encourage a culture of biking in Ghana as a means of healthy living in OVF’s operational areas (Winneba, Cape Coast and Jukwa);
  • Set up a bike rental station in Cape Coast to be managed by the Unity Drum Cultural Group (OVF Social enterprise Incubation Program), to create employment for some unemployed members and create a income stream to fund the group’s operations;
  • Reduce manual labour by beneficiaries, such as farmers and cultural group, by fixing a Extracycle on the bikes for these groups. The Extracycle can extend the capacity of load haulage to 150 kilograms;
  • Reduce Carbon dioxide emissions and help beneficiaries to make savings on transportation.

Project Execution Team Distribution Areas

The project execution team will distribute 102 used, and 15 new bicycles (bought in Ghana), in Winneba, Cape Coast and Jukwa; 75 in Winneba, 20 in Cape Coast and 22 in Jukwa. Other items which will be distributed include tires, Extracycle equipments (to expand load haulage) and maintenance tools.

Above: Jukwa Team Receive Giant Bikes
Winneba Assembly Women accept the bikes
  1. Winneba – In Winneba, the bikes will be distributed to the Chief, Mayor, Education Director, and Police Commander. Other beneficiaries in Winneba will include young girls who walk long distances to school, 20 kids from 4 deprived schools (selected together with the Education office) and who live far from their schools, Ompeh Cultural Group, ICT teachers who attended this year’s IT School (an ESLP Project) , as well as OVF staffs.
  2. Jukwa – In Jukwa, the bikes will also be used to create awareness and canvass support for the orphanage (Stoughton Horizon Orphanage), which has been supported by the EcoTour Program, since 2008 and currently houses several orphans from the Jukwa Region. The plan is to use the bikes to highlight the efforts of the Orphanage to improve the lives of the children to organizations (like Churches) and individuals. The remainder of the bikes will be distributed to Chiefs and opinion leaders, as well selected students of the Jukwa Senior High School, and the youth group [it would be good to have the name of the youth group] which partnered OVF for the EcoTour project in Jukwa.
  3. Cape Coast – In Cape Coast, the team is entrusting to Unity Drum, 20 bikes, maintenance tools, a mechanized foot pump, and 30 tires, to be used to set up the bike rental station to create employment and income for the group.

Unity Drum Cape Coast Bike Ride

Led by Unity Drum Cape Coast founder Emmanuel Richardson, the Unity Drum group set up an event that invited commmunity members in Cape Coast Ghana to experience the Joys of bike riding. The event is titled Taiwan Bike Bike Ghana ride event, This included a bike ride around cape coast to advertise the rental station being established by Unity Drum to create jobs for people and also use the resources to support unitydrum members. This is a part of OVF’s social enterprise and business incubation initiative. The goal of this effort is to promote ecological awareness in Ghana, while supporting social innovation through social enterprise creation.

Evaluation

Receivers of the 102 bicycles will fill out questionnaires, which will help OVF to gain more awareness about the usage rate, utilization of bikes and to find out how the Giant Bikes are affecting the lives of beneficiaries. This information will help us plan improved future bike programs. We also will distribute information packets about the role of bike programs and biking in general and how it is key to promote more ecologically responsible living what we term at OVF as EcoLiving.

Next Steps

OVF will report back to Giant on the progress of this project. OVF and NTHU EcoTour volunteers will also use this information to submit a proposal to Giant, to build a long-term partnership for the “Taiwan Bike, Bike Ghana” project, in order to replicate the successes of the project in other areas where it is needed in Ghana. We also may consider the relevance of expanding the effort to other countries in Africa at some point in the future.

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