Project Description

On January 14th, 2012, 75 cyclists from around the world will depart Cairo heading south to make the 11, 781 km journey to Cape Town.
The ride will take four months, traveling through 10 African countries; Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia before arriving at our final destination – Cape Town, South Africa on May 14th, 2012.

Each year since 2003 a group of riders has made this trek – each year raising money and awareness for different causes.

This year, Calgarian, Carla White will be riding to raise money and awareness to End Energy Poverty in Africa, in partnership with UEnd.  Carla’s goal is to raise enough money to fund 10 solar lights and one wind turbine water pump to be delivered to five locations along her route. Information about the locations/projects will be updated as soon as more information is available.  Read about Carla’s amazing adventure and hear stories from Africa and how you’re making a difference on her website – Carla Bikes Africa (http://www.carlabikesafrica.com)

About the Lights
The solar lights are designed by local entrepreneur Stephen O’Gorman of STAR EcoWorks and are being assembled by Centennial High School in Calgary.

STAR stands for Sustainable, Teachable, Adaptable, Repeatable, which is the criteria used to measure the success of the STAR EcoWorks programs. As we all know, access to accessible lighting is a struggle in developing parts of the world. Many education facilities, orphanages, hospitals and community centres in remote and rural parts of the developing world experience energy poverty every single day. It is STAR EcoWorks’ mandate to bring good quality, sustainable, solar light to these areas in an effort to increase well-being.

STAR light systems are reliable in extreme conditions and repairable (if needed) by the people using them. They are designed with a 1.5 watt LED with wide angle lens, which has an output of 50 lux at 1 metre distance. Each are outfitted with a solar panel and 10’ cable DC plug, as well as a standard 12V SLA battery.

About the Wind Turbines and Bulungula
The Bulungula Incubator was established in 2007 to address the challenges of rural poverty in our community while promoting and preserving the positive effects of the traditional African lifestyle and culture. This area is one of the poorest districts in South Africa and is challenged with poor quality education, and access to basic necessities such as water, electricity, health care, education and access roads.

Carla has chosen to raise funds for one of the most exciting projects currently running in the Bulungula Incubator – a wind turbine-driven fresh water well. Currently, there have been four boreholes drilled and now the project is looking to fund and build wind turbine pumps to bring water up from the wells to the community.

A total of just under $17,000 is still required to completely fund this project, however for Carla’s ride we are looking to fund at least one turbine well at $10,000.

A more comprehensive look into the Bulungula Incubator project can be found on the UEnd website at this URL: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/133