KLM and her employees have always shown social responsibility. In 2009 KLM celebrates her 90th birthday and is therefore sponsoring a charity. KLM is raising funds with a range of activities under the umbrella of Cycling Blue for Kenya. The Cycling Blue for Kenya project is executed by Cycling out of poverty in cooperation with our local organisation Uvumbuzi. This project comprises 3 components:
In Kenya there is a large informal sector in bicycles maintenance and repair, but there is no official education program for bicycle repair and modification. In cooperation with local and Dutch partners we therefore are setting up a curriculum for bicycle mechanics. We want to share and use the worldwide knowledge to design a local fitted and well-designed curriculum.
The curriculum will contain two categories. Firstly we will target simple and complex repair of bicycles and secondly modification and fabrication of modified bicycles. because of the collaboration between the training program and bicycle workshop it becomes very realistic to design, modify, produce and repair modified bicycles for small business entrepreneurs. The training program and in the end the modified bicycles will be offered at micro credit.
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To make this training program sustainable we will allocate the profit from the training and the selling of the (modified) bicycles to cover the operational costs. Our goal is that this bicycle workshop with production and training possibilities will be self sustainable in 2 years.
1 June 2009
Cycling out of poverty and Uvumbuzi consulted a number of parties about the need and the opportunity for eduction in bicycle maintenance and repair. A large group of individual bicycle repairmen "fungis" are assisting boda bodas in basic maintenance of the bicycle: repairing flats and allignment. These repairmen often learn the profession from their fathers. The knowledge of these fungis is limited to simple Chinees and Indian bicycles that are being used as boda boda (bicycle taxi). Since the bicycle market is developing, and more and more models and makes are available, the knowledge of the local fungis for these type of bicycles (gears and brakes for instance) is often limited. Both formal as informal education for bicycle mechanics is non existant in Kenya. In this Cycling Blue project a nation wide acknowledged curriculum is being developed for bicycle mechanics. For this project we are cooperation with an organisation that has experience with writing curricula. This organisation will use existing international curricula to prepare a tailor made curricula for Kenya, that can be used by institutes acknowledged by the Kenyan ministry of education. And as the first secretary of the Dutch ambassy in Nairobi mentioned to us, the development of a curricula for bicycle mechanics will boost their status. In Kisumu the training will be available via the workshop in cooperation with a vocational training centrum in Kisumu.
Your donations, big and small, are really appreciated. You may want to go out and collect money yourself. Money raised or your donation can be paid in to bank account: KLM Corporate Schiphol ‘Kenya’, account number 58.69.93.568.
It's possible to support us quick, easy and safe via KLm by clicking on the "aircares" button. you can support us by donating money or air-cares. This donation facility is hosted by KLM.
We are looking for experts who are willing to give their time and knowledge to help set up a curriculum for bicycle mechanics. We are also looking for volunteers who are capable of translating Dutch curricula to English. Interested? Send an email to info@cyclingoutofpoverty.com or call 0031(0)6-15895529 (Luuk Eickmans).
To set up the curriculum we are using existing knowledge and rewrite it to local standards. Therefor we are looking for exsiting curricula and/or study materials. can you help? Send an email to info@cyclingoutofpoverty.com.