This July 2018, globalbike handed over a new building to the Enaboishu women's cooperative who owns and runs a bike rental and repair shop in Tanzania. With support from the Munster, Indiana Rotary Club and the Cyclones, this new building will enable Enaboishu to grow their shop by being able to add and store more bicycles, spare parts, tools, and business supplies. Thank you Rotary and Cyclones!
Ever wonder why globalbike spends time constructing buildings for women's groups, and through what process we decide to partner with a women's cooperative in growing their bike rental services?
For the past few years, Enaboishu has been renting bicycles donated by globalbike from their homes. During this time and working with a globalbike program coordinator and lead mechanic trainer, women at Enaboishu learned basic financial accounting and business skills as well as bike maintenance and repair. They rented bicycles to their members and to others in the village, earning income for their group.
Here is one of the buildings at Veronica's home (Veronica, or "Vero," serves as a lead bike mechanic for the project) where Enaboishu stored their initial bike fleet. With this donated storage space, Enaboishu was able to rotate their initial 20 bicycles in and out of service to customers. However, they didn't yet have a dedicated facility to grow their rental and repair business.
In 2017, globalbike conducted a survey throughout their village and learned that demand for bike rentals in the village could sustain a larger scale bike rental business over time and help Enaboishu's bike business reach financial independence. With this knowledge, globalbike and Enaboishu agreed that the project was a viable investment and that both partners were committed to its success, so globalbike increased its investments. In late 2017 and 2018, globalbike supported the construction of the new building for Enaboishu, additional trainings in quality control and preventative maintenance, as well as development of more widespread advertising in the village and more sophisticated accounting and inventory practices. With a dedicated building for their business, Enaboishu is empowered to grow the size of their program's rental fleet and spare parts inventory.
In early August 2018, Martha and Happy, mechanics at Enaboishu, sort their new spare parts inventory in the new building. As we increase their stock, a globalbike program coordinator works with the shop managers and mechanics to perfect their accounting and monthly inventory checks.
Vero helps move bikes into the new building. In the coming months, globalbike will work with Enaboishu to significantly increase the number of bicycles that they rent in the community, adding bikes at the rate that the women are able to responsibly manage.
All of this is made possible by having a large space to store bikes, spare parts, and business supplies. Donating a building to women's cooperatives is the first step to scaling their businesses and helping women's group reach cost coverage so they can sustainably serve all customers needing affordable bikes in their village.
To learn more about globalbike partner, C-re-aid, who constructed this building using sustainable building methods and designs, please CLICK HERE.