Since 1993, Velafrica has been bringing used and refurbished bicycles from Switzerland to Africa. Over 200,000 to date. They are sold in Africa, helping dealers and bicycle mechanics to earn an income. More importantly, they enable people in remote places to attend school, reach a distant place of work or receive medical help.
Bicycle stores have been set up in various places in Africa where bicycles are sold and repaired. Velafrica has also been investing for years in the training of bicycle mechanics in the places where the bicycles are distributed. The latest project of a local partner is Faso Velo in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. As the bike store is not yet fully funded and Velafrica also wants to try out new forms of fundraising and community building, the Velafrica Cycling Challenge has been running for a few days now.
The participation fee of 150 francs per team of six is the donation that goes to Faso Velo. Some teams paid more on their own initiative. The donation target of 200,000 francs is enough to repair 5,000 bicycles in Switzerland and transport them to the Burkinabe capital. This amount will hardly be reached by the fifty or so teams and the sponsors who are also supporting the Challenge. However, as Velafrica is not basing its project funding solely on this fundraising event, Faso Velo is already up and running. "We also want the participants to identify with the project while they collect kilometers for it," explains Dominik Unternährer from Velafrica.
The winning team will receive the "Most Sweaty Team" trophy, and non-cash prizes will be raffled off among all participants. You can take a look at the intermediate rankings at this link provided exclusively by ride.ch. A three-way battle is emerging between a bike courier team from Basel and two from St. Gallen. But watch out for the participating Gümmeler factions, who are likely to massively boost their bank balance, especially at weekends.