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With end  of financial year just around the corner, many Aussie companies are reviewing their charity initiatives undertaken over the past 12 months. Here in Australia, local entrepreneurs – Rob Ward and Chris Peters from Melbourne and Reason Wafawarova from Sydney – are walking the talk by partnering with World Bicycle Relief to help entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa mobilise the business power of bicycles .

 

World Bicycle Relief Australia is a global NFP but still in startup mode in Australia, opening its doors just over six months ago. It has been assisting communities and hard-working entrepreneurs (farmers and business owners) in Sub-Saharan Africa to reach their full potential and improve the quality of life for their families by providing sturdy, all-terrain Buffalo Bicycles.

Rob Ward and Chris Peters are Co-Founders of Melbourne-based Annex Products, the makers of one of Australia’s most successful bicycle products –Quad Lock®. The company has thrown its support behind World Bicycle Relief Australia, committing over 250 new Buffalo Bicycles to developing sub-Saharan African communities in 2018. The team at Quad Lock® chose WBR as a charity partner because of the tangible support it provides to fellow entrepreneurs.

“We love the way WBR helps so many people help themselves in a scalable way. The more we learnt about the program the more we found it just worked on so many levels. The whole Quad Lock team are excited to be working closely with World Bicycle Relief Australia,” said Rob.

In Sydney, Zimbabwe-born Reason Wafawarova, CEO of fundraising company Lamre Investments, has a very personal connection to World Bicycle Relief, and is now helping WBR Australia with its face-to-face fundraising efforts.

Reason grew up in the small village of Dungu, Zimbabwe, and received access to a family bicycle while he was 12. Prior to owning a bicycle and attending high school, Reason would wake at 4:30 a.m. to run barefoot an 18km journey to Murwira Primary School in the Bikita District which would start at 8:00am.

Being the first established school in the village, Murwira Primary School had no tolerance for late attendance resulting in severe punishments for students. “Being late was not an option, we would be bashed by our teachers, required to run laps around the school or sent home. After such a strenuous journey there, we would be extremely tired, so more running was a nightmare,” he said.

Even when Reason was punctual, the exhaustion made learning difficult. “I used to be tired and hungry, resulting in dozing off and lack of concentration in class,” he said.

Reason would not only run to school to avoid being late, he would run as fast as he could to avoid encountering dangerous animals or criminals as well as having his feet burn from the freezing or hot temperatures. His journey home was the same circumstances and would be followed by hours of laborious chores at home involving more running.

Reason relocated to Penrith, Sydney in early 2004 with his family and now is a successful entrepreneur and CEO of Lamre Investments Pty Ltd which assists with fundraising for World Bicycle Relief.

The sturdy Buffalo Bicycle is a powerful tool for economic development in Africa. According to World Bicycle Relief’s global 2017 Impact Report, with a bicycle, African farmers and entrepreneurs can carry five times more goods; dairy farmers can increase their deliveries by up to 25%, and there have been over 62,000 African entrepreneurs build their businesses with the help of a Buffalo Bicycle since WBR was established.