BEN Namibia Networking Conference (video post coming soon...)

What an incredible experience! The month of July wrapped up in a wonderful way with a week in Ovamboland for the BEN Namibia Networking Conference! Markus, Beatilde and I traveled west for a three day conference with representatives from all of the Bicycle Empowerment Centers (BEC) in the country. This was the first of it’s kind- BEN Namibia was started in 2005 and since then they’ve helped open 13 BECs and by the end of the year they will total 21! Conference participants came from all 13 regions of Namibia, some shops have yet to open but folks were able to learn from others successes/challenges and get pumped up for their projects to get started. Michael and Clarisse, founders and directors of BEN Namibia, have truly created a family through their efforts. It was a beautiful experience to be with a group of people who represented so many backgrounds, cultures, countries- as I said we had folks from all 13 regions which means 13 different ethic groups of Namibians, facilitators from Australia, South Africa, England, Germany, USA, Brazil, and two participants from USA and Canada. The purpose of the three days was to learn and grow together, share strengths and weaknesses of existing projects and connect the mechanics/managers of the shops to the suppliers in the country so that BEN in Windhoek can remove themselves as a middle man and just be more of a support. I was most impressed with how empowering the sessions were. BEN staff shared all of the ins and outs of the project in a way that really handed ownership over to the BECs in a way that said ‘THE SKY IS THE LIMIT!!’ They transferred knowledge and skills that sparked discussion of endless possibilities!! The BECs themselves shared what they are doing at their individual shops and that was inspiring to see what can be done no matter what- village or town, outside funding from another NGO or just independent entrepreneurs rocking out the bike shop :) One of the first BECs is the Okithitu Bike Shop- there they have built three small rooms to rent out as accommodation for when visitors come to the community or when trainers/donors come to see the shop. They also have a partnership with the local school where the top learner each year gets a free bike and a two week training on bike mechanics. One of their latest initiatives is to obtain a computer and teach basic typing skills and computer classes to local community members. Their bike shop is located 18km off the tar road, we drove through a sandy desert until we came upon the shop. I was surprised that they would be able to keep afloat- it didn’t seem like there were hardly any people living anywhere close and so far from town seemed to isolate them a bit. But they reported that the go through bikes like mad and are always ordering more to sell to the community! It was inspiring thinking about our own project- it is in the center of the village/town and close to the Angolan boarder- so many customers in our area and the tar road will reach Nkurenkuru by the end of the year so the project could really explode if we can get in a system of ordering bikes on a regular basis! At the conference Markus and Beatilde connected with the other BECs in our region and the idea now is that they can work together to bring shipments of bikes on a regular basis. They can share the cost of delivery from the coast to our region and also sell or trade parts with one another instead of always looking to Cycle Wholesales in the capital. Markus has a dream to obtain another container and use that as a classroom to start a kindergarten. We’ll be talking with the Town Council and Ministry of Gender and Equality to see if that will be a possibility. At the very least the space with another container can be used for an after school program or out-of-school youth program. These are ideas that were inspired from the conference and I’m excited to help them become a reality!
We'll see how it all pans out....since we've been back in Nkurenkuru we've received another donation of bikes from Bicycles for Humanity Ottawa and that has allowed the gang to get back into the swing of things. Josh and Mark from B4H Colorado visited last month and that was great to have them reconnect with everyone and encourage markus, augustinus, and beatilde to keep up their hard work and build on what they have going here.