Bamboo bike ride for Solar Aid
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Hitting the trail on December 1st 2011, Jack Morris’ bamboo bike ride is expected to take 8 months and cover over approximately 5000 miles. By cycling on a bamboo bike along East Africa’s coastline, from Kenya to Swaziland, and then through Europe, from Istanbul to his hometown Witney, Jack hopes to raise money for Solar Aid. Solar AidSolar Aid is a multi-award winning charity that developed the microfranchise brand ‘SunnyMoney’:We believe that the best way to fight poverty is to create jobs and businesses for people. SunnyMoney provides a sustainable way out of poverty for entrepreneurs, and a means to end reliance on harmful kerosene in their community.What is SunnyMoney?SunnyMoney is our microfranchise brand which uses a pioneering technique called microsolar to bring light to the poor whilst creating jobs and offering an alternative to costly and polluting kerosene lighting. Local entrepreneurs receive marketing and commerce training to enable effective distribution of portable solar-powered lighting systems and to ensure the lasting success of their new business. With SunnyMoney, everyone is a winner: the franchisees, their families, their communities and the environment.Sustainable incomeSunnyMoney is sustainable. Micro-finance loans mean entrepreneurs can buy microsolar lighting products and sell them to their local community. The loans are small and manageable but allow entrepreneurs to offer a responsible business. Effective distribution and high quality products also allow entrepreneurs to supply a warranty for devices.For more information on please visit: www.solar-aid.orgIn Nairobi Jack will meet with the Solar Aid team, whose ‘[Kenyan] project provides a sustainable way out of poverty for entrepreneurial Kenyans, and replaces harmful kerosene with solar powered LED bulbs.’A few weeks later, in Dar es Salaam Jack will meet another Solar Aid team to lend a hand to their ‘Tanzanian Project’, ‘[which] creates jobs for the poorest people in Tanzania, and brings solar power to local communities and school children.’
Before leaving on the bamboo bike ride, Friends and family helped Jack raise over £600 for the Rotary Club. For information on these donations, see Jack's blog www.bamboobikeride.wordpress.com If you would like to donate to the Malindi project, please contact Jack at jackbdm@gmail.com
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More information on the bamboo bike:
The bike is sponsored and donated by Ecoplanet Group, Oxford Brookes University, and Bikezone in Oxford, to raise awareness of the capacity of bamboo technology.
Bamboo's unique strength and flexibility offer a strong and vibration absorbant bike frame material. Thanks to the Dr Shpend Gerguri and co., the frame has recently passed stringent European testing standards.
Dr Shpend Gerguri is one of 2 Oxford Brookes School of Technology academics who designed and engineered the bamboo bike frames and tested them during a competitive Craft Bike Transalp event.
Please feel free to contact me at jackbdm@gmail.com for more information.