The benefits of a bamboo bike

At Traveling The Green Way , a partner blog to my travel blog with b5media, Liz Lewis from New Zealand writes about Craig Calfee and his bamboo bike project.

Craig, it seems, traveled to Ghana, West Africa to help bring bamboo bike transportation to the people. These bikes, reinforced with bamboo, can help people earn more money. For one thing, the extra strength allows a man to transport two sacks of 110-lb cement to and from a work site. And because they all work together as a team to build the bikes, the project brings a sense of community to the people in the village as well. You can see the excitement of those who are participating in the video. And Craig knows he's helping.

It's a good idea. It's another reason bikes can benefit a life; however, as I posted in my comment at this blog, the only issue I have with the project is that it doesn't benefit women. You'll see in the videos posted on this blog that women are not in the picture. There are no women helping build the bikes. There are no women riding them. When I was in Kenya two summers ago, I was told women don't own bikes because they cannot afford them. So, my question to Craig is then: will your program ever help women? They need transportation as well. They have to carry heavy items as well when they go to market. They could use a bamboo bike.

I think I'll e-mail him and ask this question directly.

Still, I do think this is a great idea.

See for yourself by clicking on the videos here.

All my best,
Jackie