Here is a sample we are working on. It requires one to at least have two functioning hands. Built from scrap pipes. It works normally if the user has the ability to hand pedal it. Working on implementing an engine may be that would be a better alternative.
Fig1: CA wheels
Stay tuned on the wheel chairs adventure.
Other news,
A few Hardships getting started: It has been quit a challenge to find and secure big enough Office space/workshop/storage facility. Before coming to Uganda, with a help of a friend, I had secured some place that got demolished since then because it was in a road reserve. After a long rigorous search we have finally found a house that we will be renting for two years. This house will serve as an office, a workshop, and office. The search was long because the economy/inflation is really bad, so everything has increased in price; thus it took very long to find something within our price range.
Forming an NGO (Non Profit): Due to the nature of the project and foreseeing the need for a smooth future ongoing operation of the project, we have decided to form a non profit in Uganda first and when I get back to the US I will file to be a (501c) as well. We are in the process of filing the paperwork. I will keep you updated. The Name of the non profit is: CA Bikes. CA comes from (California, Cal, Cal Alumni and they are my initials as well J). It seemed like a good idea to call the NGO CA Bikes.
What’s going well: Bike building is going well. We have so far built about 12 bicycles and they all look really good. As mentioned above we will be spreading our wings a little more to build wheel chairs that were not in the initial proposal but every one seems very excited about it. Due to limited technology and other resources, instead of building bike frames from scratch (except wheel chairs) we decided to buy parts from a local dealer in Kampala (he imports from China) assemble them and/or modify the bike to suit our desired purpose.
Candidates: Though we have not started distributing bikes yet, we have visited a few places that we see have very many potential candidates that will soon be beneficiaries. For instance we visited Sts peters and Paul’s primary school, which has a huge number of orphans walking as many as 7 to ten miles to school. Some of them head the families (lost all their parent and no relatives). We also visited Virika hospital HIV counseling and testing centre to locate HIV linving patients who commute long distances to and fro the center.
Truck: I briefly mentioned the purchase of the project truck. It’s a used Nissan MODEL 2004. Here is the picture.
Fig3: Truck
Other exciting news: I have been emailing back and forth with a gentleman named Vanghul who owns a bike company and is involved in many bicycle relief organizations including Zambibikes in Zambia. Mr Vanghul met a certain gentleman lets call him Smith (I don’t remember his name) at a conference in amstadam who they happened to have a conversation during an intermission. Somehow somewhere my name was brought about in the conversation. Mr Smith was present at one of my speeches in California and asked Mr. Vague to contact me if he could be interested in getting involved in some way with our project. Long story short, his company would like to send us a container of cargo trailers that can be hauled by bicycles or motorcycles.
Fig4: Sample trailer
Very exciting staff! Stay tuned on the updates.
Thanks
Christopher Ategeka
Pedal or power (CA BIKES UGANDA)
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