Pastor Peter's pedal power

by Nigel Pegler
(Norfolk England)

David tries his new trailer

PASTOR PETER`S PEDAL POWER
During August I was involved in a cycle project in South Africa at the rural village of Mapoch which is about 40kms NW of Pretoria; I worked for a South African volunteer charity called Voluntours, I was placed with Voluntours by a British volunteer group called People and Places (www.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk)
The idea of the project was to introduce bicycles into a poor African community and give them cheap transport. During the month I was there we turned a grocery shop run by Pastor Peter into a cycle shop, built some bicycles from spares and renovated some donated bicycles which we put in the shop for sale. We bought some spares to sell in the shop and we built a cycle trailer from plastic waste pipe and cycle wheels, the plans for which were supplied by Y frame trailers, although the plans were for a bamboo construction plastic pipe was easier to come by.
We were hoping to get a container of donated bicycles from Re-Cycle shipped to S.A. but time was against us and we are currently trying to raise funds to buy the container to store the bikes in and the funds to pay for container shipment have been donated by another volunteer working for voluntours. Despite this we managed to get the project started and Voluntours are in the process of getting Pastor Peter and another villager trained as cycle mechanics,
While in S.A I visited other cycle projects and if set up properly they are viable, although the projects I visited were not supplied by Re-Cycle they do supply other projects in Africa and this will be the first time they will be working with Voluntours.
The cost of container shipment is £2,500 for approximately 350-400 bicycles and once these are sold enough money will be made to enable another container to be shipped to S.A

I visited Re-Cycle`s (www.recycle-east.org) depot at Colchester a few months before my trip and was very impressed by their operation, basically if someone donates a bicycle to them it is checked over and when enough bicycles are collected a container is filled and then shipped, enough bicycles are now being donated to enable a container a month to be sent to Africa. Any bicycles that are not up to scratch are stripped and the spare parts are loaded into the container.

The difference a bicycle can make to a poor South African is amazing, I was told about a district nurse who visited her patients on foot and saw eight patients a day but after being given a bicycle she can visit 18 patients, as she is paid per visit her income has doubled and more people get treatment. While at Mapoch I lent one of the villagers a bicycle to go to the nearest town, it normally takes him forty minutes each way on foot but by bike he did the journey both ways in thirty minutes!
By setting up a cycle shop we have ensured the Bicycles will be maintained and we have created employment for the villagers and they will have cheap transport which for some of the children will mean they do not have to spend hours each day walking to school.

Pastor Peter said “The advent of People and Places in my community has been something of a miracle happening. All of a sudden in our lives came white people who really cared about the welfare of our people. Because of the people that have been coming into our lives, our people have been encouraged to develop their natural skills and acquire new skills. We have been encouraged by some of the people who are coming to us, to use the resources we have to alleviate poverty.
The building of the pre-school and day care in our community has helped a lot of parents concentrate on more important issues than baby sitting and has given the kids a head start in education.

The bicycle project is something else all together. People for the first time aware how disadvantaged they were transport wise. With bicycles they can now afford to visit, shop and travel to those places that were out of reach to them. Some are already thinking of running businesses with their bikes delivering bread, milk and meat. Parents are enquiring about how they can get hold of bikes for their kids because the kids want bikes to get to school.
With people like this coming into our communities we can only benefit more, as they will be imparting very valuable knowledge and passing on scarce skills”

Since leaving South Africa I have been in contact with Voluntours and received this e-mail…
"We have just come back from the village and on the way there we bumped into David carrying fruit, veggies and water on his trailer. He says that he has managed to put two 50kg pockets of cement on the trailer. That is 100 kg that he has transported successfully. His little transport business is really going well and he says that he makes about R80 a day from transporting and selling things! He says that Christmas is going to be good this year as he will be able to buy a sheep! We have put Peter's mobile number on the trailer and we are getting so many calls to make trailers that we have to start looking into make a few soon.
It really is fantastic to see the impact that the bike have make in the community!"

David lives with his father and 9 other people and they survive on his father’s pension of £35 a month and whatever David can earn buying goods locally and then cycling 18 to Mabapone rail station and selling them


If you have an unwanted bicycle in good condition which you can get to Re-Cycle it will be put to good use and will make an appreciable difference to someone’s life and if anyone has experience of working with bicycles and would like to do some voluntary work in South Africa I am sure People and Places would love to hear from you.
I had an amazing experience working in South Africa and can recommend it to anyone; I came away with a feeling of accomplishment and have hopefully made a difference to the lives of the villagers.

Nigel Pegler