Cycle for Health

We're Honored to Mention It!

We feel vindicated! Cycle for Health is an Honorable Mention winner for the 2009 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. CfH fits like a glove with the HealMobile concept, and is a submission from a group in Africa with ties in the U.S. Since everyone agrees the healthcare system needs a new model, The HealMboile, this time as as a bicycle for health delivery program, is an idea whose time has come. The winner is the project: Sustainable Personal Mobility: The CityCar, the RoboScooter, and Mobility-on-Demand Systems. Very close to TheHealmobile still. As we like to say, "We're in motion, we might as well be healing and healthy." Because where could we go, sustainably or not, if we are not feeling well?

I've just skimmed the CfH submission to the BF Institute and I am posting it here...AND AS I READ I AM ASTONISHED. As Bucky said, You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. (Buckminster Fuller, designer of the geodesic dome)

Submission to bfi.org

The initiative is an immediate need for rural communities with ample medicine and skilled professionals not being delivered or accessed because of poor roads and the limited use of motorized vehicles. When advanced care is many miles away, timely diagnosis, treatment and drug delivery is critical, especially true in the case of pregnant women and HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB patients. In the rural setting, mild delays in initial care dominos small, treatable problems into serious ailments, resulting in a long, costly journey for advanced care at city hospitals.

To treat this rural health care problem at its root cause, Cycle for Health collects idle bicycles in North America, packages them with spare parts and tools, and ships them in purchased 40 ft. containers to community based organizations (CBOs) in rural East Africa. The fully stocked, containerized bicycle workshop becomes instant storage and workshop space upon arrival.

The non-governmental organization (NGO) First African Bicycle Information Organization (FABIO), trains recipient CBO staff to repair, refurbish and remodel recycled bicycles into ambulances, goods carriers and off road transporters. The bicycle designs are marketed to hospitals, health care organizations, NGOs, and women development groups as a resource to mobilize their resources and improve their services. Cycle for Health is a breakthrough in its comprehensive package of materials and trainings. Where current aid programs see bicycles as a donation dropped into a needy community, Cycle for Health envisions recycled bicycles as a capital to start sustainable small scale bicycle enterprises which improve mobility of medical resources, create jobs, and enhance quality of life.

Cycle for Health organizers conducted a 2007 baseline needs assessment for bicycle use and health care delivery systems in Uganda. Community buy-in and project planning is complete for a pilot workshop in the rural Kigezi District of southwest Uganda. Technical trainings are being facilitated by FABIO and implementation is being managed by the CBO Kigezi Community Project (KCP). The two organizations have an MoU with Two Wheeled Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) which is coordinating recycled bicycle shipments, fundraising, and conducting monitoring and evaluation.

The Kigezi bicycle shipment departs mid-November from a collection point in Calgary for the Red Cross compound in the village of Kabale, located in the heart of the Kigezi region. During the two month travel period of the oversea shipment, KCP will establish a Cycle for Health office and schedule trainings with FABIO. The containerized bicycle workshop will be established in Kabale early 2009.

The Cycle for Health three year implementation plan rolls out satellite bicycle workshops from the central “hub” in Kabale. The satellite sites double as bicycle repair points and stops on a KCP mobile health clinic route. With empirical evidence of a Kigezi model, Cycle for Health scales out to other Ugandan and East African communities. 
The prize monies will be invested in a community foundation account and injected to offset shipping costs for future containers of recycled bicycles, facilitate trainings, support purchasing of specialized bicycle building materials and tools, and for monitoring, evaluation and documentation.

Describe how your strategy meets the entry criteria ("What We're Looking For")

Cycle for Health operates within the ‘global village ideal’ and emphasizes treating the root cause of social problems. It presents a bold, visionary initiative backed by a solid plan and administered by a capable team of globally conscious, grassroots experienced, technically savvy organizations. It is a comprehensive package, integrating health care delivery needs with an appropriate transportation technology.

The program leverages existing medical resources and empowers existing health providers rather than re-inventing the wheel.
 Cycle for Health is ecologically responsible, promoting pedal power as a carbon-free transportation choice. The initiative builds on bicycle recycling programs involving North American groups and recipients in Ghana and Namibia. The impact of bicycles can be measured quantitatively and qualitatively in studying health delivery in the Kigezi region. The bicycle is an accepted and valued form of transport in rural areas, and so the concept can be adapted to a broad range of conditions.

Dr. John Baptist Niwagaba, the director of Kigezi Community Project is a resident in the Mulago National Hospital of Kampala, Uganda and a native of the Kigezi region. He is well experienced in rural community health care and has intimate knowledge of the Ugandan health care systems. His connections to health care providers and health related organizations in Uganda will help to generate a market for the CfH services.

Joseph Agoada, chairman of Two Wheeled Foundation is an administrative coordinator in the International Development Initiative at MIT. Through grassroots work in Uganda and administrative experience in the global arena, Mr. Agoada has built the story of how bicycles acts a simple, yet revolutionary instrument for saving lives and solving the mobility issue in rural Africa. He understands the accountability and organization that is needed for a successful program.

Patrick Kayemba and the staff of the First African Bicycle Information Organization add Africa specific bicycle knowledge to CfH and experience in the importing of bicycle resources. Seven years of grassroots bicycle training and advocacy in Uganda will facilitate smooth implementation of innovative bicycle technologies in the CfH Program.

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The Bike Pineapple Stand in Kabale, Uganda, pictured above, demonstrates the resourcefulness typical in rural areas. The entire proposal submission, public comments, and more can be read on the cycle for health webpage of the Buckminster Fuller Institute.

Visit TheHealmobile's Links page to learn more about organizations across the U.S. (and one in Guyana) bringing health assessments, supplies, and healing resources closer to the communities they serve.