A simple bike tour takes a left turn and becomes a mission to end poverty in Rwanda.
Tom Ritchey's plan to tour the world on his mountain bike included alot of places, but Rwanda wasn't even on his radar. It was Dan Cooper, his long time friend, who suggested it. They set out for Africa in December 2005. Little did they know how life changing their trip would be.
Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills. It is green and lush, and tiny – just under 10,000 square miles. Close to the equator, it's warm and tropical, with bananas and passion fruits hanging from trees that are home to wild gorillas. The population of eight and a half million lives quite simply, in homes with dirt floors, only cloth where doors and windows might be, no running water, no electricity. The most densely populated of African nations, it is mostly rural with 80% of it's people agriculturally based. Coffee farmers provide the largest crop for export.
Rwanda is an ideal place for world class mountain bikers to have a little fun. Tom has been racing bikes since childhood, a national champion at 16 (U.S.) He has been instrumental in the growth of biking into an international sport. He started Ritchey Logic when he was 16, a bike manufacturing company that joined in the pioneering of mountain bikes. Since those days in the early 1970's he has become an international figure in mountain bike racing.
Dan was able to lure Tom to Rwanda with tales of challenging hills, warm weather, and scenic outback. But the real draw was the warmth and charm of the Rwandan people. Having suffered a horrendous genocide campaign that impacted every person (ending in 1994), the Rwandans have overcome tragedy by uniting to create a friendly, caring and welcoming society. It was the stories of reconciliation and forgiveness that really touched the two friends.
"I found myself just being completely taken over by how people were and how unique their story is," said Tom Ritchey, "It’s just unfathomable what they all experienced and survived once you’re there. And how they can do it with such forward looking – it’s just hard to imagine. Everyone that I encountered had some scars on their body that were evidence of the genocide. It affected me and it sucked me in."
Being on bikes gave them a chance to get much closer to the Rwandans. "We went over to ride our bikes. And we went in areas that basically people were living very naked to the world." Tom recalls, "being on a bike is one of these things that – they’re used to seeing a white man in a Range Rover. That’s the model of the NGO. That is the model of the traditional. When you go there and you're there on a bike, all of a sudden you tap into a whole other world. And the reaction and the connection process is very stimulating, for both. They want to know about you. You want to know about them. There’s an excitement factor."
As they explored the terrain and got to know the people, Tom began to fall in love. He was deeply moved by their kindness, by their radiant smiles and the joy of life they expressed even while living in extreme hardship. "One of the things that was beautiful as I started to get to know the Rwandans was just how uncynical they are. I mean we’re so used to cynicism, it’s such a part of the way we think." He felt moved to stay longer and get more involved. "People are still thinking Hotel Rwanda is the way Rwanda is. It’s not. These people have figured it out. For some reason, when they got to the point where they almost annihilated each other, and they realized and they woke up to it, they changed. They had an epiphany. They got it. It’s not happening hardly anywhere. That’s why Rwanda is a sweet spot in the world. It’s a place where the story needs to be fanned and the flame has to be rekindled. And I think it can be rekindled. I think people can get a tremendous blessing out of Rwanda if they peel back their prejudices and all the things that they think are going on over there, and get to know these people."
When people live with very little, they soon develop an incredible ingenuity. The Rwandan are largely coffee farmers, living in a hilly country, without vehicles of any kind but plenty of hard work to do. They needed a tool to lighten their load. The wooden bikes they developed are used all over the country, but don't exist anywhere outside of Rwanda. Tom was fascinated. "They had created something on their own initiative and their own inventiveness that met their needs. It’s the only part of Africa that has these. They’re all over the country. They load it down with water jugs, potatoes, coffee, boards of wood. And they just push them around."
"One of the things that you realize when you’re there is just how innovative people are when they don’t have anything. They innovated. And it inspires you. So the Wooden Bike Classic started out as a seed idea so we could go back to Africa and put on an event, and race the wooden bike. It was just a crazy idea."
The first Wooden Bike Classic was in the following September, 2006. Nearly 3000 spectators flooded the streets to watch the events, including a mountain bike race, a singlespeed race and a wooden bike race. Tom brought along a few of his world class mountain biking pals to lively up the race, including Jock Boyer, twice winner of the Race Across America and five-time Tour de France participant; Alex Stieda, the first North American to wear the yellow jersey. It was a spectacular day.
Racing against world class bikers, the Rwandans took all the prizes. Tom and his buddies soon realized that these people climbed up and down Rwanda's "1000 hills" daily, on broken down metal bikes or home made wooden bikes, loaded with hundreds of pounds of goods. The Rwandans are strong, healthy and are used to pushing far harder than any of the western riders, as part of their pursuit of livelihood. Given a good bike with gears and new components, they proved to be athletes to contend with. Jock Boyer volunteered to initiate the forming of a Rwandan National Mountain Bike Team.
In their daily lives, even beat up Chinese and Indian bikes are a major part of the work world in Rwanda. As Tom got to know Rwanda better, he saw that bikes were vital to their coffee growers. Coffee is one of Rwanda's biggest industries. There are 500,000 coffee farmers, each one tending a small family farm of 2-300 trees. After picking, the berries are carried to a centralized washing station where they are prepared for market. Because the farms are small and carefully tended, there is an extremely high quality potential. Sadly, much of this tender care is lost because of the hardship in transporting the fresh picked berries. Getting the berries from farm to the washing station can take 6-12 hours when using a wooden bike to transport them, each hour reducing the quality as the berries ferment in the heat. Quality loss translates into income loss.
Tom knew just what to do. "I started to do my research and realized a lot of their needs could be solved by a well designed bicycle. So, that’s what I set out to do. And that’s the heart of what Project Rwanda is – a coffee bike program in developing a Third World bike that is intended to carry significant loads and do it with durability."
He went home and designed a bike that would get those berries to the washing station faster. The coffee bike features an elongated wheelbase, an integrated rack system that is two to three times as large as the bicycles available in Rwanda, powerful cable drawn brakes for safety, over-built wheels to handle at least 150 kilos and a low-geared shifting system to enable riders with large loads to overcome hills. "The top has bolt holes so they can bolt boards on the top, and running boards on the side so they can strap stuff on. But the main thing is the rear wheel is much more heavy duty than a typical wheel. It’s got 48 spokes. It’s got a roll cage structure in the back, so that it’s very strong in terms of being overloaded. And it’s got gears. They’ve never had gears."
Tom learned that the designing of a load bearing bicycle could increase a farmer's earning potential by 30-40 percent annually, which benefits everyone in the community. Rwanda's one billion coffee trees have the potential to generate over $150 million in annual foreign exchange earnings, with as much as 80% returning to the rural communities. The coffee bicycle can reduce transportation time from 6-12 hours down to 2-4 hours, increasing the market value of the berries by $0.15 - $0.20 per pound. Tom realized that a new bicycle could be instrumental in the rebuilding of a nation's economy, national pride, quality of living for its people, and his hope to end poverty there.
But how to get the new coffee bicycles to the farmers, when only one Rwandan in 40 can afford a bike at all? And how to make a lasting impact? Tom puzzled over the question. White people with programs have been coming to Rwanda for a long time. They come with their own community, their prosperous lifestyle and their funding. They keep to themselves and a fair amount of corruption surrounds the money. When the westerners leave, the programs die. Tom wanted to be different. He wanted to support the Rwandans, to empower them.
Conferring with allies near and far, Tom devised a plan. In a pilot program launching this month (March 2007), 2000 farmers will receive a "hand-up" not a "hand-out". Using a micro-lending model, the farmers will receive the bikes on a 3-year loan with low interest rates. The increase in price for the coffee will generate the funds to pay the loan back. Individual farmers will be able to privately own the bicycle, and use it for other income generating purposes (hauling goods, as a taxi, etc.) during the 9 off season months. Their whole family, and local community will benefit.
Tom came back to Rwanda in September to hold the wooden bike races. Tom brought his son Jay, who was then a global studies major in college. Jay interviewed for the position and stayed in Rwanda to oversee the coffee bike program. He writes in his blog about introducing the bike to the farmers:
"It is natural for them to be skeptical of this foreign program, some white guy coming in and trying to have them buy this bicycle. They don’t know how much the bicycle is really worth, they don’t know if I am trying to rip them off, for all they know I just look like another business man trying to make as much profit as I am able off them, like so many have done before. But in this meeting I answered with clarity and passion the question and complaint of the amount of the bicycle, “Why is the 70,000 francs ($120USD), why does it have to be so expensive?” I told them that the bicycle costs $100 USD to make in the factory, and costs $20 to ship here, we are not making any money. This bicycle would cost four to five times as much in Europe or the U.S. and we could make a profit, but we are not selling it there, we are selling it here and not making it a profit. Because our motive is not to make money, it is to address the issues of Rwandan coffee farmers that bar them from prospering, mainly internal transportation issues. And we are trying to make the bicycle accessible through a three-year loan. There are plenty of people in this country that could buy the bicycle upfront, but we are not selling it to them, we are selling it to you because we want to partner with you in improving your livelihoods. The buyers of your coffee in the U.S., Canada and Europe are putting money into this program because they think it will both improve your economic situation and the product that they buy and sell in their countries. The group lightened up, and a few of them stood up, and with sincerity in their voice they said they the now understand the program, and why the program was there. It was a moment of satisfaction for me, because I felt like a bond of trust and understanding was being established for the program.
Later we wheeled the bicycle outside and I handed it over to Celestin who was going to use the bicycle for a month. The group chose him for this trial period because he used his bicycle frequently to carry things to the market and when he did not do that he would ride within the sector he was responsible to motivate and inform the coffee farmers. The moment I began speaking to him I sensed he was a sincere man, with a kind voice and respect we spoke with each other about the bicycle and the reason behind him using it for a month. He jumped on the bike and started riding it with familiarity. The group of 30 or so was formed around him, and they told him he couldn’t ride up a steep hill nearby. Apparently nobody could ride up this hill, so he took to the challenge and set off for the hill. A few minutes later on the opposing mountain you could see his little figure on the bicycle riding up the hill. They were cheering out of excitement of what that bicycle could do. I was soon bombarded with requests for the bicycle by non-coffee farmers. The farmers simply replied to them that if they were coffee farmers they could have access to the bicycle, and they should join the cooperative. Celestin returned with a smile and told me that this bicycle will make him a rich man."
The need for special use bikes like these worldwide is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions. Tom's passion has inspired everyone he shares it with. He is looking beyond the first goal of supplying coffee bikes to all of Rwandas farmers, to the dozens of developing nations who could also benefit from its gifts. In the last 6 months a strong team has joined him at Project Rwanda, contributing a variety of skills.
"I am so blessed to be working with the people I’m working with. My original team was Dan Cooper. Basically it was me and Dan who went over there the first time. These gentlemen and women are all people that have primarily come on board in the last six months. As we finished the website and as we went and did the Wooden Bike Classic, got the first bikes over there and started telling the story, emails from people that wanted to participate became something that I just had no anticipation of. How many people would want to support a project and basically give themselves to this? The unique thing is that these people are very professional people and the organization is completely volunteer driven. There’s very little cost associated with the overhead of Project Rwanda and we’re getting good support."
"John Frechette is my COO. He used to work in the Peace Corps when he was young. He just had so much to offer. Rosette Rugamba is actually part of the government of Rwanda and she is the director of tourism. It’s very unique to have her. Peb Jackson just came on. I asked him to join the board two days ago. He is somebody that I’ve known for about 20 years. He and Kevin Cusack I’ve actually known about that long. And they’ve been involved with humanitarian projects their whole lives. They’re cyclists. Pem has one of the first involvements with the government of Rwanda."
In just a year and a half, Tom has taken on Rwanda and made a huge impact in their economy, their self image, and their membership in the global community. In the next few years he plans to deliver coffee bikes to all 500,000 coffee farmers, to continue with the Wooden Bike Classic and the Rwandan National Mountain Bike Team, and to boost tourism by bringing international bike races to Rwanda. Most of all he wants to show the world the new face of Rwanda, a warm and welcoming face with sparkling eyes and an open heart.
Jock Boyer couldn't agree more, "I feel more and more the bond that these people have together and the invisible understanding that passes through each one of them. They have made their choice, either be destroyed by the past or enable it to bring them to a deeper understanding to the value of life and people they come in contact with every day. Tragedies will either make you a better person or a bitter person, it’s so evident which side of life they have chosen."
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