Cycling for Change

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Clark is taking the principles he promotes in the States-encouraging cyclists to repair their own bikes and pass on their skills-through free maintenance workshops in Rwanda. It's a sustainable approach, he emphasizes, that will save Rwandans money and resources.

It will take more than a few patch-ups to revolutionize Rwanda's bicycles, though. 'We saw one guy . . . who was hauling 200 pounds of water on a bicycle that was all rewelded,' says Project Rwanda co-founder Gary Boulanger, who first traveled to the country with partner Tom Ritchey in 2005. 'The guy was barefoot, and one of his pedals was missing-it was just a steel rod.' Most bikes they encountered also lacked brakes-a necessity in 'the Land of a Thousand Hills.'

So Ritchey, in the same Woodside, California, garage where he conceived the mountain bike three decades ago, is retooling his classic design into a heavy-duty trailer that can haul 300-pound loads on an extended rear rack. It's ideal for Rwanda's 500,000 coffee farmers, whose product loses freshness (and value) with every minute spent pushing bicycles precariously stacked with coffee cherries to market. Ritchey hopes the bike can be distributed, through the help of several American groups working in the country, to 1,000 Rwandans by early 2007, in time for the coffee-harvesting season.

After that, the folks at Project Rwanda hope to get rolling on another key goal: establishing a Rwandan Olympic team to compete in 2008. 'We hope to see them come in and just kick butt,' Clark said.

To learn more about Project Rwanda, visit www.projectrwanda.org.

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