Just when I'm ready to throw my subscription to the advertising supplement named Bicycling magazine out with the trash, I see they've expanded their worthwhile BikeTown project to Africa.
BikeTown is Bicycling magazine's attempt, together with other sponsors, to get more people in the saddle by giving away bicycles, and then reporting on their lifestyle changes. Since it began in 2003, BikeTown has given away 1,300 bikes in 26 US cities, including Seattle.
Next year, BikeTown Africa will furnish 200 Kona bicycles to HIV and AIDS health-care workers in Botswana.
Botswana is the second most hard-hit country in the world by the HIV epidemic, surpassed only by Swaziland. At the end of 2003, it was estimated that 36% of the nation's 1.6 million population had AIDS or HIV.
The bikes are specially designed by the Kona Bicycle Co. to handle the local environment and to require little maintenance. The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, which already funds health-care projects in the region, is another contributor to the BikeTown Africa project.
The foundation says getting health care to people suffering from the disease in the small, scattered settlements in sub-Sahara Africa is one of the biggest challenges of treating AIDS and HIV patients.
In March, 200 Kona bikes will be delivered to health-care workers in Bobonong and Gaborone, enabling them to make home visits in town and in remote villages. The programs in those cities not only provide medication, but also counseling, orphan care and food security.
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