The Jewish philosopher Maimonides famously wrote “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” We’ve updated it: “Teach a woman to repair a bicycle, and she’s in business for life.”
A room full of Solar Sister entrepreneurs each holding a bicycle wheel listen intently to another Tanzanian woman explain the mechanics of bicycle repair. This is what happens when globalbike and Solar Sister work together, thanks to support from Social Initiative / Fagerhult.
In Tanzania, it’s not unusual to see women riding bicycles, although more often, it is men and boys. However, bicycle mechanics? It’s rare to come across a female bike mechanic. Despite this, globalbike trainer, Luice Mvamba, absolutely loves what she does.
I love fixing bikes! I always tell my students that to learn something you should love it first.
In this training room in Moshi, northern Tanzania, 23 women are learning not only to ride their new bicycles, but also to carry out repairs and maintenance. And thanks to this initiative, 80 Solar Sister entrepreneurs across Tanzania have received branded bicycles and helmets.
Rahima Msafiri is a Solar Sister entrepreneur from Same, in Kilimanjaro region. She launched a clean energy business early 2018.
Usually she walks or must pay for a bus ticket, if she wants to bring her solar products to new communities. Now Rahima has a bicycle, she sees her horizon expanding.
The bike will help taking my lanterns to different and to new places that I have never been before because of transport. So I see my business growing.
Rahima had never owned her own bike, let alone knew how to fix it. After the globalbike training, she believes in her abilities: “Now if anything goes wrong, I myself can fix the bike without worries.”
She says she now knows how to remove and replace the rear and front tires, as well as using the tools she needs to maintain the bike.
Luice herself enjoys sharing her knowledge with her fellows. She knows it is not easy to learn these new tasks and she also has complete faith in her bicycle mechanics!
“We train to be calm and control our temper and be patient. Fixing a bike requires attention by following step by step and to know which spanner is needed to unlock or tighten a certain nut or bolt.”
There are so many benefits to owning a bicycle and knowing how to repair it. Luice notes that women will ride to further communities to grow their businesses; will rent the bicycles for extra income; will use them to make household chores more efficient.
For Rahima, her new bicycle, helmet and mechanics toolkit, means her business and her family will prosper.
***
Thanks to John Nyallu for interviews and photography.