BodaBoda.nl : Handmade bike cushions from Kenya
- Economic development
- Energy conservation
- Green business
- Poverty alleviation
- Sustainable development
- Sustainability
- Transparency
Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?
Robin
Quax
Yes.
The Netherlands
After my secondary education, I travelled to Kenya for 6 months and lived in a small village close to lake Victoria. The bicycle taxis operation in this region, called bodaboda's, immediatly drew my attention: a public transport system by just hopping on the carrier rack of a bicycle, why had nobody in the Europe tought of this! And on the rack there was usually a soft and colorful cushion, to make the ride comfortable.
The idea kept popping up in my mind, especially when I constructed a bicycle taxi back home in the Netherlands and got many curious and positive reactions. Together with a good friend I decided to give it a try: find local producers in Kenya and export the bike cushions to the Netherlands.
We would like to decorate the European streets with colorful bikes. But in addition to delevering a good and funny product, the fact that we are creating employment and stimulating business in Kenya is very important to us. And to us, the bike cushions is more than something to sit on. It shows that you care for you bicycle and cheerish this mode of transport. We believe, baring in mind GHG emissions that we should reduce and the threat of climate change, that more cycling is a good idea!
The combination of fair trade, sustainability and cheer give us endless energy to turn this idea into a succes.
bodaboda.nl
, UT, Utrecht
, NY, Kisumu
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A potential customer is fed up with the bumpy bicycle rides, he finds our webshop were he can create a personal design or choose from a set of colorful standard design, the order is sent to the producers in Kenya and they make the cushion. Within three weeks after the placement of the order, the customer has his unique bike cushion. Problem solved!
Operating for less than a year
The manufacturers in Kenya are benefitting from the extra business. Finally and end-product that is exported from Africa! This special production chain creates the opportunity to not only offer our customers a great product but also raise awareness about different living standards in another part of the world and that we can really make a difference with the things we buy.
We can quantify the impact on the life of the producers by calculating the extra revenues they are making.
The impact in the Netherlands is harder to measure since the sales started recently. But all the positive reactions tell we are on the right track. Apart from the direct use of being able to transport an extra person when it comes in handy, our product intends to spread the idea that cycling is fun!
Our product is already partly made from either recycled or natural, biologically degradable materials. We are continuously trying to improve the product. Of course it has to come a long way from Kenya, but it is very possible to do this by shipping, one the environmentally friendliest ways of transporting goods.
It is very likely people we continue to use their bicycles in the future, especially in the Netherlands. In fact, in a sustainable future, we expect the bike to play an increasingly important role in transporting ourselves. Of course we all love to have bikes that look cool, and that’s exactly what we are facilitating! So we believe there will be a contant or even growing demand for the cushions.
Social sustainability is achieved by investing in our producers. Already a know them very well, but training them and assuring that they are benefitting from the business is important to us.
Taking charge of your own life, that is what development is about according to us. Not making people dependent on aid, but enabling them to help themselves. Social entrepreneurship does exactly that. We should realize that all people can add value to this world and that they should be rewarded in a fair way. Since we face the fact of a market driven global interaction, social entrepreneurship should be one of the key focus points in developing fair relations between people and countries, allowing each and everyone of them to prosper.
Most rewarding would be probably the contact with the people and the energy and cheerfulness I have experienced so often in East-Africa. Challenging as always would probably still be the confrontation with poverty up to the level where it inhibits basic needs of people. The inability to force change there and then, and the realisation that we cán do something but that it will always take time and only prevent future suffering, not present, I have always found hard to bear.