Mapping our success
BEN Namibia's Bicycle Empowerment Centre programme has grown from one outlet in 2006, to an extensive network of shops where Namibians can buy affordable bikes and repairs. The map below shows the locations of projects, and if you're in Namibia looking for a bike you can find phone numbers to phone ahead and see whether your nearest BEC has what you need in stock.

View Bicycle Empowerment Network in a larger map

Windhoek township tours by bicycle
BEN Namibia is proud to support a new bicycle tourism venture. KatuTours offers visitors a unique and intimate way of interacting with Windhoek's former segregated area: by bicycle. BEN Namibia provided business development support to help get this Namibian-owned company up and running, and sourced bicycles through our partners Re~Cycle and ITDP.

Support real empowerment in 2011
BEN Namibia aims to expand its network of Bicycle Empowerment Centres (BECs) in Namibia in 2011, creating more jobs and making affordable mobility available to even more Namibians. This year we reached the milestone of our 20,000th bicycle imported, but this has only been possible with your support. You can donate online here from anywhere in the world.

Ashoka prize
A big thanks to all of our supporters who voted for us in the Women Tools and Technology competition run by Ashoka Changemakers. We won! Along with two other changemakers in the competition, BEN Namibia was awarded US$5,000, and a place at the Clinton Foundation Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in New York. We are now finalising our CGI commitment to implement multiple BEC projects throughout southern Africa.

Zambia project
BEN Namibia has helped establish a Bicycle Empowerment Centre in the Village of Chibobo, near Serenje in northeast Zambia. It has proven to be enormously popular, with most of the stock of bicycles selling out very quickly. The project is supported by Bicycles for Humanity Melbourne and AusAID, and is run by a local orphanage to provide transport and employment in the village. We have been working with Zambian partners Zambikes to implement future BECs in Zambia. See our blog entry on the first visit to Chibobo.

Thanks to our Supporters
BEN Namibia is incredibly grateful for the support it receives from donors and partners and looks forward to continuing our work together.

A bicycle's benefit in sub-Saharan Africa
Numerous studies have demonstrated that bicycles are an appropriate technology for travelling short distances in developing countries, with the lowest operating costs of all available modes in sub-Saharan Africa.

A bicycle carries up to five times the weight and can travel four times as fast as a person walking, using much less energy.

As an example, bicycle-related activities can:

• Improve access to income generation opportunities.
• Provide sustainable transportation for low-income earners.
• Increase access to government services, including health care and education.
• Mobilise home-based care volunteers to visit more people living with HIV.
• Provide sporting opportunities for young athletes.

BEN Namibia is a section 21 association not for gain no. 21 2005 0019

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