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Another Cyclist Hit!

Noted environmentalist and cycling advocate, Sunita Narain, was hit by a speeding car near the AIIMS flyover on Sunday morning at 6 AM while cycling to Lodhi Garden from her home in Green Park. She was riding alone when a "a big red car" hit her bicycle from behind and sped off.  

Conscious and bleeding profusely due to a broken nose and fractured arms, she managed to get a lift from a passing vehicle which took her to the AIIMS trauma centre. An eight hour surgery was undertaken to install two titanium plates to fix her broken arms and suture her fractured nose, which may require corrective surgery later.

The 52 year old director of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) commented after the incident, ”Cyclists in Indian cities are being edged out systematically to make way for cars.” Narain and CSE have been vocal supporters of people's right to walk and cycle on the roads of urban India. 

Ms. Narain is a 2005 Padma Shri awardee, and has also received the World Water Prize for work on rainwater harvesting and for its policy influence in building paradigms for community based water management. She is also the director of the Society for Environmental Communications and publisher of the fortnightly magazine, Down To Earth. 

Changing Lives With Bicycles ~ Bicycles Against Poverty

Molly Burke and Muyambi Muyambi ride together in Bethesda, Maryland.

Photograph by Cade Marti

THE PEDAL PUSHERS

While most people see a bike, Muyambi Muyambi and Molly Burke see potential. Their organization, Bicycles Against Poverty, uses a microfinance model to distribute bikes in rural Uganda, turning what would be a three-hour walk into a swift spin to health clinics, markets, and schools.

"I’m from southern Uganda, but grew up traveling often to the north, an area deeply affected by war,” says 24-year-old Muyambi. “Traveling showed me how people lived, and it revealed their struggles.” Muyambi found a way to make a difference while studying at Pennsylvania’s Bucknell University, where he met Burke. Together, they developed their nonprofit, which distributes bikes to low-income entrepreneurs who make monthly payments of about $3 to cover half the price of a bike. The organization, which has issued more than 660 bikes so far, then provides workshops in financial management.

While looking to expand their program, the cyclophiles raise funds through their annual 3,200-mile bike tour across the U.S. It’s not easy—Muyambi works as a civil engineer in Washington, D.C., and Burke draws no salary from the organization. Says Muyambi, “It’s amazing to feel you’re contributing to the people you love, the country you love, and the world you love—because they are all connected.”

THE INTERVIEW

National Geographic Traveler: Where did you get your inspiration?

Muyambi Muyambi: I’m from Rukungiri, in southern Uganda, but I grew up traveling all across the country, seeing how people live, seeing their struggles. I came to see that a bicycle is all about potential. The bikes provide access to health clinics, markets for trading, clean water, and schools—they mean, for example, that someone who is sick and needs to walk six-plus miles to a hospital can be transported by bike instead. They’re life-changing tools.

NGT: How can bikes help alleviate poverty?

Molly Burke: Getting bicycles to developing countries helps individuals create their own opportunities. We give workshops as part of our program. In the opening workshop our staff members ask the community, “What is poverty?” One villager in Acholi said, “Poverty is lack of transportation. Poverty is being confined to an area where you can’t get to trade your farm goods, buy the products you need to, or get to the health center when it’s necessary. Poverty is being stuck and not being able to leave your area.” A $100 bicycle can changes lives.

NGT: How did you get the courage to launch Bicycles Against Poverty?

MB: We’re entrepreneurs. We lack those parts of our brain where fear should kick in. We don’t really think in terms of hurdles or needing courage, it’s just a matter of when and where the “what” gets accomplished. It’s funny because I don’t think of courage as something we need. Money, resources, time, and the occasional search for focus? Those are things I think about.

NGT: Where are you headed next?

MB: What’s remarkable about Bicycles Against Poverty is that it's unbelievably scalable. We want to expand within East Africa first. We have Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia on our list. Then I want to head to South Africa, India, westernChina, Central America, the Middle East. And let’s not forget about the Deep South in the U.S.

NGT: What’s your ultimate goal?

MB: To provide access to opportunities across the globe. In the words of Hillary Clinton, “Talent is universal, opportunity is not.” Bicycles Against Poverty lives by this. We understand that greatness is across the word, but access to the opportunity to make the most of your potential is not always readily available.

MM: I believe in bicycles so much. I see them as something that’s important to everyone. I remember wondering where I’d end up in life, but giving back to the community was always on my mind. Now I’m just looking for the resources to continue doing it.
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com

BikeTalk: To know more about this amazing initiative, please go to http://www.bicyclesagainstpoverty.org/

Cycling Signs!

It’s 5.30 am and I’m standing in line at the New Delhi Railway Station security check-in, which even at this relatively early hour is snaking into 50 odd people, most of them tourists since the train stops at the travelers mecca, Agra. As I slowly inch forward, I happen to glance at the ceiling and am instantly transfixed at the sight of an installation high up on the wall. It’s a bicycle with dozens of brightly painted chai ki ketlees in egg yolk yellows, mossy greens, sapphire blues and poppy reds, all merrily strung up around its frame. With the middle tube adorning a wire rack of chai ki glassies, it’s the quintessential Indian Railways tea stall transplanted onto a regular aam admi cycle. The bicycle itself is a work of art with its frame painted military green, offset by a yellow coloured fork, its spokes and rims a psychedelic mix of red and yellow, sporting an all blue hub.

I am completely enamoured by this sublime work of art, which is a fitting rival to the Monalisa in my opinion! Kudos to the artist for its simple genius with the final flourish proclaiming chai garam splashed onto a big, bright yellow kettle. It’s a delightful start not only to the day but also my journey, which is on many levels since I am relocating after a period of five years, the longest that I have been in one place being an Army wife. Although life in a small town cantonment is diametrically opposite to that of the National Capital Region, change is something I am adept at, regardless of the end of the spectrum I find myself in. 

As I'm about to board the train, I realise there's still some time in hand and although there's a book in my handbag, the legacy of many a train journeys' pulls me towards the enticing fanned out glossy display of a book kiosk. I scan around for a magazine as the vendor hands me the latest issue of a health magazine. Hmm…while not my usual pick, why not I think, spurred on by the thought of the distinctly un-healthy veggie cutlets and French fries breakfast awaiting me on the Shatabdi! 

With the magazine tucked under my arm, I settle down in my seat and once the killer sweetness packed in a Frootie has been served, I pick up the magazine. There are the usual suspects, magical diets and tips on great abs, healthy recipes and size zero figures in leotards. As I flip through the glossy pages, I stop short at a picture of a woman cyclist. Sporting the happiest of smiles, astride a yellow mountain bike is a well known face in cycling circles, Malvika Jain, and I eagerly dive into the article about her amazing exploits.

This has to be a sign am thinking, not a mere coincidence. I mean, how else can it be explained...my spotting the bike installation at a platform I have walked through multitudes of times before, randomly picking up a magazine I generally never buy only to find a write up about a woman cyclist I know! And all this in the span of half an hour on a nondescript morning in June at the railway station!!

I read it as a sign telling me that whatever the circumstances, I must continue to follow my passion and pedal on. You see, ever since deciding to relocate to a small town, which even Google could not find, I'd been battling doubts over my ability to continue cycling, With very few known faces, absolutely none who were cyclists, no cycling support as in a local bike shop or anyone to ride with, I had been brooding. That morning of the signs turned things around for me as I got off the train brimming with anticipation and excitement over the immeasurable possibilities awaiting me. Inshallah!

Dog Alert!!