NGO Launches Electric Cycle Project For Rural Women
A local non-governmental organisation has launched a pilot project that seeks to provide women living in rural areas with electric tricycles in attempts to ease their daily travel worries.
According to NewZimbabwe.com, the project dubbed Mobility for Africa was launched at Shaka Hills Farm in Wedza where some 30 tricycles, known as Hamba, were provided to local women in the area by the organisation.
Mobility for Africa director, Felicity Tawanga had this to say:
The initiative is a partnership between China’s Tsinghia University, Midlands State University, Mobility for Africa and Solar Shack.
It seeks to find sustainable transport solutions to small-scale farmers and rural communities.
They travel long distances to reach bigger markets in nearer towns or just around their communities where villages and houses are very distant.
They also walk long distances to fetch firewood and water, often with a baby on her back and with her only pair of shoes.
This is a social enterprise that partners with China to introduce electric tricycles whose batteries are recharged using solar energy – an abundant resource in Zimbabwe.
We believe that by transforming the way women move in rural areas, from point A to point B, productivity will increase and the quality of life in rural life can be improved.
We believe in the local saying; ‘musha mukadzi’, which means; ‘a home is what it is because of the woman’.
We believe by investing in them, we can transform rural lives. Imagine less time walking long distances to fetch water or collect firewood.
