The most memorable aspect of the Bill Moyers Journal's Hope in the Congo was the lack of transportation. In our village of Bulape, there is only one vehicle owned by the hospital. Everything is carry by on the heads of women or on bicycles by men.
Pictured is the Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) designed and manufactured by the Institute for Affordable Transportation. The BUV will be used by the Bulape Hospital to transport people and supplies to and from the reference hospital to remote health clinics.
These bicycles are the backbone for Congo. They are everywhere. They carry everything. I have seen cloth, corn, pigs, goats, corpses, and tin roofing on bicycles. Just think everything that is moved by truck is probably moved on bicycles in the Congo.
Bicycles are the tractor-trailers of Congo. While in Congo, I am so afraid of hitting on those guys. From the video, it appeared this time of the year or this area of Congo does not have lots of bushes. The winding paths with low visibility make travel scary.
It was funny to hear the guy complain about the Chinese tires. But I do not understand how these bicycles hold up to all the weight.
Also, it was funny to hear the guy talk about speeds and gears.
Everyone can not afford bicycles. It is not like Holland where everyone has a bicycle. Most people walk from village to village. Only the transporters have bicycles. Bicycles are business vehicles.
Please visit the site and view the video.
Link: Bill Moyers Journal . Hope in the Congo | PBS.
THE JOURNAL takes viewers on the ground in the Democratic Republic of Congo to follow aid workers and local relief efforts that are bringing hope to a forgotten land. "The aid agencies are almost substituting for a social welfare system that hasn't operated in these areas for decades," says Dominic MacSorley, Emergency Director for Concern Worldwide, an international aid organization.
Concern is one of only two aid organizations working in some remote regions of the DCR. The other, Doctors Without Borders entitled its March 12, 2008 field report: "Violence spikes and civilians suffer." It is one more harsh report from a country which has suffered through a devastating history — recent and remote.
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