CA BIKES UGANDA END OF YEAR REPORT

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1 Christopher Ategeka Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize Project Report 1 CA BIKES UGANDA END OF YEAR REPORT Dear Friends, Cal Alumni, CA Bikes supporters and well-wishers: Early June 2011; I gazed outside my bedroom window where the sky lightens to the new day, revealing the sea of the Rwenzori mountain ranges, their crisp edges and perfect curves as seen toward Congo (DRC) I admired this place I call home. A new Life! A new Beginning! And that was the birth of CA Bikes Uganda. Seven months later it s hard to believe that we have come to this point. The end of the short term now turned into huge long term project. Over the last 7 months we have made terrific progress in our quest to reach out to the disabled, HIV+ orphans, and other vulnerable children by building wheelchairs and bicycles giving them gifts of mobility, hope, and freedom that will inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. As I reflect on CA Bikes initially pedal of power project s end of the first phrase/ pilot project and the beginning of a full throttle Non -profit organization which is birth of a whole new world to us, it s hard to look at the future if we haven t reflected on the past. First, things first: Words and Worlds cannot express the Thank you to The Judith Lee Stronach Grant of the Under Graduate Research at the University of California Berkeley deserve for their generous

2 Christopher Ategeka Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize Project Report 2 support that enabled the birth of CA Bikes Uganda. Hundreds of orphans, Disabled persons, OVC s and their families have smiles on their faces. The people of Fort Portal are equally thankful for this one of a kind project in this region, and the whole of East Africa for the innovations, developmental ideas and also important employment opportunities. Special thanks goes to Chevron Human Energy for powering us. The extra funding enabled us build and give out up to 100 bicycles, 10 wheelchairs and 5Tricycles distributed among 115 families. Without you, none of this would have been possible. We kindly ask you to continue believing in us and having confidence in our future. Thank you so much and we are grateful for your generosity. The Twists and Turns in the our project Initially, the plan was to build, and give away 8 Motor-bicycles 15 Non-Motorized (mountain bikes) 8Ambulances However, due to numerous reasons that I will discuss in Detail below; we ended up concentrating only on mountain bikes and wheelchairs. And these are the designs that CA Bikes Uganda as an Non-profit will continue producing as we move forward. 1. Motor Bicycles: As an engineer, NOT any other engineer but a mechanical Engineer; no project would be as enjoyable than the one that involves building a machine with moving parts i.e bicycles that are engine operated to make work easy for human kind. That s where I got all the enthusiasm of building motorized bicycles. Today, am happy to announce that we successfully built 10 fuel consuming bicycles like the ones in the picture below. The initial plan for this design was to give these bikes away to orphan; however, when it came down to it, the bike was not practical. Its maintenance is very high; requires gas and oil; and its

3 Christopher Ategeka Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize Project Report 3 very expensive to build. Thus we decided to keep all the bikes we built and rent them out to tourists for a little fee. Money collected goes to sustaining CA Bikes program Motor-bicycles that consume gasoline and run as a motorcycle Top speed 60km/hr 2. Ambulances to wheelchairs The other design included in the proposal was building ambulances. However, this idea was never executed because upon my arrival back home and having been away for so long I realized that there has been a significant increase in motorcycle taxis locally known as Boda Bodas readily available for hire in most places. Most people have access to this means of transport when needed to go or take a sick person to the hospital you could find one. Never the less as I mentioned earlier in one of my letters home that there was a dire need of wheelchairs and tri-cycles. Thus, we decided to replace the Ambulance idea with making of wheelchairs and I have to say that was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. We have designed and given away about 15 hand powered tri-cycles and wheelchairs.

4 Christopher Ategeka Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize Project Report 4 Nothing feels good than giving gifts of dignity, freedom and independence to a person who has been dragging themselves on the ground all their life. Here are some designs 3. Regular bicycles We have designed and given out 95 regular mountain bikes. We built and delivered bicycles to orphans or HIV+ kids who are good students but live between 10 and 20km away from their schools/hospital Access and Mobility

5 Christopher Ategeka Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize Project Report 5 Our mission is perhaps best exemplified by our ability to provide support to community based education, mobility and assist youth programs with development projects with the help of locally made bicycles, wheelchairs and tri-cycles. Here is a process on how we deliver our services: We go to the field assess potential recipients with a motorcycle, take measurements, and then go to a scrap metal store or junk yard and pick out pipes, sheet metal etc whatever seems usable. we cut and weld or braze them together; sand it down, bottle spray it and its good to be delivered to the recipient. It sounds simple in a few lines but it s a long process. In order to help us locate recipients who need our services the most, we worked with many local non for profit organizations, hospitals as well as educational institutions. Here is a list of the programs we worked with to be able to supply wheelchairs and bicycles efficiently. YES UGANDA VIRIKA (Anti-retriviral Therapy )ART PROGRAM KAGOTE SEED SSS MPANGA SSS STS PETER AND PAULS P/S MATTHEW SPECIAL NEEDS PROGRAM INDIVIDUALS FROM THE COMMUNITY LOCAL AUTHORITY MEMBERS CHURCHES FORT PORTAL HOSPITAL ORTHOPEDIC WARD (Orphans + OVC program) (HIV+ Living program) (Elementary+High School) (Elementary+High School) (Elementary school) (Elementary School) ( Orphans, OVC s & Disabled persons) ( Orphans, OVC s & Disabled persons) ( Orphans, OVC s & Disabled persons) (Disabled persons) Equity and Inclusion: Equity and inclusion is at the soul of CA Bikes Uganda and we are especially proud of the progress we are making on our initiatives. We continue to work hard at outreach for unprivileged groups in Uganda like the HIV Positive children, the disabled, the orphans and Other Vulnerable Children s (OVC s) to create a community that share a special bond and a welcoming climate for all Administration, Facilities and Infrastructure

6 Christopher Ategeka Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize Project Report 6 Administratively, I have built a very firm Foundation that will run and operate all CA Bikes Uganda projects in an efficient and smooth manner while I pursue my graduate studies at CAL. However, one of the biggest challenges we are facing as we move forward is the issue of salaries, bills and other administrative costs. This is an additional responsibility I have to take on in devising means to do fund raising and /or find ways to internally generate income to help support our work. We are optimistic that with the help of all CA Bikes supporters we will find some ways to raise money to cover this as we go forward. Facilities, we have securely paid rent for two years for the facility that s used as a workshop, storage facility as well as a housing facility for some employees and volunteers. We also have an office space in the town center which works as the headquarter as well as offices for the nonprofit. Again, as we move forward we will need to cover costs on rent and utility bills. The office rent is paid through March 1 st 2012 Vehicles, we do own a truck as well as a motorcycle (fully paid for) which are used to run the organisations works in the field. Thanks to Chevron for making this possible. We need to raise money for maintenance, gas and so on to keep the organization vehicles in good shape and running. Looking Ahead Looking ahead, as mentioned earlier one of our major challenges is to raise funding that will continue to support our programs in covering the following costs salaries, raw materials (to make bicycles, tri-cycle & wheel chairs), schools fees payments, scholastic materials and Lunches for the recipients. We are beginning now to think about the new funding sources and proposal writing that will be much needed as we go forward and continue to develop a long-term budget model and strategies that will sustainably support CA Bikes Uganda. To remain a program that we take so much pride in, CA Bikes must continually advance its programs. We must also continue to make the case demonstrably that even the HIV positive living people are worth our investment; in contrast to the myth of many Ugandans who think HIV+ Kids are on their way to death so they don t want anything to do with them. Since they look at any resource put into helping them as wasted resources. To show the world that

7 Christopher Ategeka Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize Project Report 7 improving mobility and accessibility to education and health of Orphans and vulnerable children is our responsibility as world citizens and worthy our investment. They too, if given a chance in Life can make a difference in the world in making it a better place for all of us. The Funding & Sustainability New Initiatives, we are continuing to launch a number of new ideas and designs, to help the society and the Economy of Uganda. The future plan is to create a business model for our products to help out the locals. We will sell the bicycles and tri-cycles to them at a subsidized cost in order to sustain the works of CA Bikes. Here are some of our new designs suits for Uganda roads as well as the economy that we will launch soon.

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9 Christopher Ategeka Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize Project Report 9 Bicycles for rent, on our quest to finding funding sources/ internally generate income to sustain our operations, we will be renting out bicycles to tourists for a small fee. All funds 100% collected will go to helping CA Bikes Uganda programs. Internet Café, in one of my letters home I briefly mentioned that we have started a computer lab. The main purpose of this lab is to help teach basic computer skills to all the recipients on our program. In addition, we will be using this lab as an internet café to help us generate income to support our programs. Proposals, my staff has been working tirelessly on proposals to a number of foundations and organizations. We are waiting on hearing back from them. We hope that someday we will get an organization that will help support our work. Reasons to Celebrate We have many reasons to cerebrate but here are the five reasons all this is worth a while We celebrate the fact that people in a Ugandan rural community who have been crawling on the ground al their life; now are mobile with local made hand-powered tricycle. We celebrate the fact that many HIV/AIDS positive children that leave anywhere between 10-15km away from the only hospital in the region that provides HIV services especially getting their weekly ARV s (a medicine they have to take daily to help them live longer) ; now own a mountain bicycle which enables them to see a doctor, and most importantly a close access to much needed medical care. We celebrate the fact that many orphans can ride on our local made mountain bikes to save them from, a cold dangerous morning journey to school in the dark, or a scotching sun in the afternoon. With our new bikes they can make it home before dark, prepare something to eat and have some time to study. I got to point out that some of them carry a friend who commute from the same village or direction to their homes which increases the efficiency of our bikes We celebrate the fact that in five schools the top three students from each class were able to receive a mountain bicycle as an incentive for best performance to encourage them to keep up the good work and more important to encourage them that with hard work and determination nothing is impossible. Also it put the rest of the students to a task to work harder.

10 Christopher Ategeka Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize Project Report 10 We celebrate the promise of the new prototyped tri-cycle designs for the local markets something that s new to the region especially to a mother who has to carry a baby on her back plus a full basket of goods on her head to go to the market or a business man that has to carry heavy loads heavier than his own weight daily to earn a living. We are a very optimistic. I am confident that all of those who are part of CA Bikes staff, supporters and well-wishers will bring their ingenuity, love, generosity and effort together to create opportunities to help us meet our challenges in our efforts to helping others. I welcome your input on the challenges and opportunities ahead. Please send me your comments to cabikesuganda@gmail.com as we continue with this journey. With warm regards, Christopher Ategeka UC Berkeley Grad student // Mechanical Engineering christrevor1@berkeley.edu // Executive Director CA Bikes Uganda Mobility for all CEO CA Tours Uganda Life like no other

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