Mission

"Simply riding a bike, as healthy and as enjoyable as it may be, I started to feel empty and a little selfish. Becoming increasingly anxious to learn whether there was anything of greater social significance I could do on two wheels.

Having a discussion with Patricia Marshall Harris, the Director of ABCF, we discovered the tremendous importance of having access to a bike to students, small farmers and health care workers in rural parts of Africa.

Our vision was broader than their model, it would be better if we pursued an independent course. We wanted to be engaged in an effort to assist transport dependent populations and to make them more mobile, but we wanted to do it differently. We wanted to be able to give the bikes that we purchased to under-resourced people at no cost to them, without having them committed to pay a micro-loan, as so often had been the case with programs existing to send bikes to Africa."

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- A. Bruce Crawley, ABCF Chairman

The African Bicycle Contribution Foundation (ABCF) is 501(c)3 non-profit corporation whose mission is to generate funding to underwrite the distribution of bicycles to under-resourced, transport-dependent students, small farmers and healthcare workers, in Ghana.

The Foundation also anticipates that, as a result of its programs, a substantial number of related jobs and businesses will be created on the Continent, in the areas of bicycle manufacturing, assembly, repair and maintenance.

Imagine living in a rural African community, where you must walk miles to have access to your school, to fresh water, to healthcare facilities, or to carry your small farm's produce to a marketplace. For those without access to other forms of transport, and who are challenged to traverse rural roads, a bicycle can provide significant family economic benefits and can, literally, be a lifesaver.

African tradition, in most rural areas, places an inordinate burden on women as the primary haulers of fuel, water and food, and to provide for the healthcare needs of their children. For most, walking is their only mode of transportation, and it may take hours to get them to critically important destinations. This is were ABCF, and its supporters, can play a critically important role.