Benefits Of Bikes | Mozambikes

Economic Benefits of Bicycles

Strength
	Every morning Martinha wakes at 4am to collect branches from a wooded area 4 kilometers from her village. She gathers a bushel of wood and rushes back to sell it at the local market. She cannot abandon her post for the hours it would take to collect more wood. Martinha can only sell what she brings back each morning, thus her personal income is limited by her strength. With a bicycle, she could easily double her load and not worry about arriving late to the market.

Speed
Junior lives in a fishing community near a tourist destination in Northern Mozambique. He can easily carry his daily sales, as the fish are small and relatively high cost. However, once he catches his fish, he must then row to shore and walk for nearly an hour to the markets on the island. When he arrives, often much of his product has spoiled from the sun. Junior’s income is limited by his speed. With a bicycle, he could arrive at the markets with a full fresh load.

Health
	These boys clear land for farmers. Often the plots are more than 10 kilometers from their village, and they must carry their tools the whole way. They arrive weakened from the travel, which is often under a strong, penetrating sun. The boys are paid per ¼ hectare they clear, and therefore lose money from their less productive state, and from the time they lose during the walk. A bicycle could allow them to reach the fields fresh and ready to work. Avoiding the long travel also reduces the stress on their bodies that cause them to miss entire days of production.

Access to Education	Access to Healthcare	Green Transportation

An estimated 60% of adults in Mozambique cannot read and write due to the lack of sufficient schools. Bicycles enable people to travel further to reach existing schools.	Nearly 2 million people in Mozambique are living with HIV or AIDS. Over 3,000 people die each year from the treatable disease malaria. Bicycles allow people to reach health facilities that they otherwise might not be able to reach, allowing them access to medicines and diagnoses to keep them healthy.	As cities develop, they are often plagued with traffic congestion as personal car purchases outpace advances in public transportation. By building a strong bicycle industry, we can try and help cities stay green.