Sunyani West District, Ghana, Dec. 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Bernice Dapaah, founder of the bicycle manufacturing company, GBBI, participated in the event after recently returning from a successful three-city tour in the U.S., and a trip to London, with other social entrepreneurs and President Addo.
For its sixth distribution of free bamboo bicycles in Ghana, the African Bicycle Contribution Foundation, a U.S.-based 501(c)3 corporation, recently selected the Sunyani West District, in Brong Ahafo Region. The district is noted for having approximately 32 percent of its total land mass dedicated to forest reserves, and a substantial percentage of its 115,000 residents, especially, in its more rural areas, are involved in agriculture, and more than 60 percent are self-employed.
Over the past 15 months, ABCF has distributed free Eco-Ride bamboo bicycles to students, small farmers and healthcare workers in rural areas of Ghana, including in Accra, Kumasi, Koforidua, Sekyere Afram District, and in other parts of the Brong Ahafo Region (A map depicting the previous distributions has been attached).
Following an opening prayer by Sunyani West Koduakrom School Acting Headmaster Yeboah Kwabena, District Education Director Veronica A. Safforo, provided welcoming remarks to student-recipients, family members and dignitaries, including Kwame Abu, chief of Kwabena Kuma; Banabas Hinneh, chief of Henekrom; Martin Obeng, district chief executive; and Social Welfare Director Thomas Oduro Ofosu, among others. She also introduced Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative (GBBI) founder and CEO Bernice Dapaah, who offered background information on her Kumasi-based bicycle manufacturing company and its related NGO, the Bright Generation Community Foundation (BGCF).
Next on the agenda was Solomon Owusu Amankwaah, development director, GBBI, who spoke on behalf of the event sponsors, the African Bicycle Contribution Foundation, its executive director Patrícia Marshall Harris and its chairman, A. Bruce Crawley.
During the event, ABCF distributed an additional 40 Ghanaian-made bamboo bicycles to Sunyani West students, farmers and healthcare workers. The foundation plans to sponsor the distribution of 2500 bicycles in Ghana, over its first five years of operation.
Since the previous ABCF Bicycle distribution event, Ms. Dapaah has been actively engaged in promoting awareness of GBBI in the United States, where she participated in a Three-City Tour of Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C, meeting, among others, with leaders at St. Joseph’s University’s Haub Business School and Johns Hopkins University’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. She also was invited to address the members of the city of Philadelphia’s City Council.
In addition, Ms. Dapaah recently returned from a trade mission to London with President Nana Akufo-Addo and other Ghanaian social entrepreneurs, in celebration of Ghana’s 60th year of independence. In his presentation, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, President Addo explained the role Ghana’s emerging entrepreneurial leaders are playing in assisting him in producing a more economically dependent nation.
Who Is ABCF?
The African Bicycle Contribution Foundation (ABCF) is a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation whose mission is to generate funding to underwrite the distribution of bicycles to under-resourced students, families and transport-dependent small business owners on the African continent. The Corporation has made a commitment to finance the free distribution of 2,500 bicycles, in Ghana, over its first five years of operation.
ABCF works in partnership, in Ghana, with the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative, Bright Generation Community Foundation, The Respect Alliance, and the U.S.-Ghana Chamber of Commerce. Included among the foundation’s corporate and charitable nonprofit sponsors are Independence Blue Cross and the Omega Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
For further information about ABCF, please contact the ABCF office: info@africanbike.org.
