The Power of Bicycles
In briefAI summary — tap to read
World Bicycle Relief transforms lives in developing countries by distributing specially designed, durable Buffalo bicycles to students, healthcare workers, and entrepreneurs. The organization has deployed over 500,000 bicycles across 20+ countries, enabling improved access to education, healthcare, economic opportunities, and water resources while addressing multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Key takeaways
- Buffalo bicycles are locally assembled, steel-framed bikes designed to carry 220 pounds and support basic mobility in rural areas where walking distances to schools, clinics, and markets create significant barriers to development.
- The organization combines philanthropic distribution programs with a for-profit subsidiary (Buffalo Bicycles) that sells bikes and spare parts locally, creating a sustainable model that generates revenue feeding back to nonprofit work.
- Research shows bicycles reduce student commuting time by 33% and absenteeism by 28%, while enabling healthcare workers to reach 88% more patients and travel four times farther than on foot.
- World Bicycle Relief prioritizes girls' education, providing 70% of school bicycles to female students to break cycles of poverty, early marriage, and household responsibilities that prevent school attendance.
- The organization prioritizes field feedback, using direct input from end-users and community leaders to drive product development and supply chain improvements in real-time.
About Dave NeiswanderDave Neiswander is a 13-year member of World Bicycle Relief who spent most of his tenure in Africa and was the first person on the ground for the organization in Zambia in 2007. Kimmy King is a longtime supporter and recent member of the organization.
AI-generated from the meeting recording — AI can make mistakes, so check the recording for anything important.
Meeting for the week of September 07 - September 13, 2020
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: The Power of Bicycles
Speaker: Dave Neiswander
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President - Raquel
Guests, we are happy to have you join us this week!
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Is it the TRUTH?
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Weekly Funny with Shags
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steve Shags Shagrin!
It's all in how you phrase the question, eh?!?
A man knocks on his neighbor's door:
Hi. I noticed you painted your bedroom last month and since we have a similar house, I thought I'd ask you how many cans of paint you bought. Sure thing! We bought seven cans. Awesome, thanks! A few days later, the man knocks on his neighbor's door again, looking a bit ticked. Hello again, what's up? Well, the other day, you told me you bought seven cans of paint for your bedroom, right? Right Well, the whole room is painted and we have three cans left. Oh, you too?
Weekly inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
Whatever you might choose to devote yourself to doing, achieving something spectacular is a function of persistence. This puzzle took the person who did it almost a year, even though the timelapse is for two and a half minutes. Enjoy the views within the puzzle of impressive places around the world, and perhaps also the humor in the comments on the YouTube page!
World of Rotary
Every month we will focus on a particular story that tells of our organization and the work of Rotarians in the world.
This month, we bring back the story of Canadian Jennifer E. Jones, who is Rotary's first woman to be named Rotary president-nominee. When Ms Jones becomes RI President in 2022-23, she will be the first woman to hold that office in Rotary history. Read the full story here: https://www.rotary.org/en/jennifer-e-jones-makes-history-becomes-first-woman-named-rotary-president-nominee
Ms.
Jennifer E. Jones
Jennifer E. Jones makes history, becomes first woman named Rotary president-nominee
Through a Rotarian's Lens
Sometimes a photo can capture an amazing moment. In this section Member Keith Marsh shares his incredible photography!
If you'd like to submit a photo for this section please contact Keith.
While in Africa on a Rotary water project with H2Open Doors, we had time for a safari in Maasi Mara area of Kenya. On the last day, I was able to capture these two lion cubs playing around a tree. One grabbed the others tail at the right moment.
Learn something new
This section is curated by members Shags Shagrin and aims to teach our members and guests something new, fun and useful! If you have any ideas on a fun trick or skill you'd like to share please contact Shags.
20 Awesome Tricks with WD-40
Ahhhh...WD-40. Trying to find a Water Displacement solution that would lubricate, unstick, and do all sorts of useful things, they finally had their perfect mix on the fortieth try, hence WD-40. Word is that it's mostly fish oil, but whatever it may be, it's amazing. This video is just over 7 1/2 minutes long, but nothing but music, so use the playback settings to speed it up! And enjoy!!
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Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
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Club announcements
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We hold our meetings online, but we do regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of the events and service projects listed here.
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Happy Dollars: do good by sharing something good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)
Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!
This section is usually updated on the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Monique Ziesenhenne made a $20 donation.
TRF-Annual Fund, because we had a great Foundation Committee meeting last week!
Caleb LaPlante made a $5 donation.
Happy to have made it through 2/3rds of 2020. We're more or less in the 7th inning stretch. Phew.
Armand Kambou made a $15 donation.
Please apply to Polio Plus
Rory Olsen made a $20 donation.
Hurricane Laura bypassed Houston. Please apply my gift to Polio Plus.
Nan Herron made a $20 donation.
I’m so happy about some of the friends that I have met in this club. I keep forgetting that I have never actually met them in person, because I feel so close to them, love them, and look forward to seeing them up on the screen at every meeting and in between.
Selected comments
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select a few comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are the comments selected from last week’s meeting.
Tanya Martin said:
With Covid not going away anytime soon, I feel one has to make long-term adjustments to a new normal. I almost cannot see life without a mask. At the park today in Atlanta, people were still acting as though it was 2019.
Nan Herron said:
What a fabulous program! The music from Zimbabwe blew my mind! Who’s going with me to hear it in person?. And Shaggs, I always love the kitchen hacks. I use them almost immediately! Ferheen, thank you for working toward getting us the most up-to-date information. There is so much we can all be doing to continue this challenge!
Heather Shaw said:
David. As a Santa Clara county business, I was impressed with the guidance to reopen a business and offer a safe environment for your clients that the county provided. Great presentation!
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!
Program: The Power of Bicycles
Speaker: Dave Neiswander
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others. Special thanks to member Roger Plested for leading our club's Programs Committee in finding us amazing speakers each week.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub nor Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
World Bicycle Relief mobilizes people through The Power of Bicycles. They are committed to helping people conquer the challenge of distance, achieve independence, and thrive. In this presentation, we'll look at the connection between bicycles and education, gender equity, health care, and economic development.
Our speaker, Dave Neiswander, joined World Bicycle Relief (WBR) in 2007, and in January 2018 was appointed CEO after serving other roles, including nine years as Africa Director of the organization. Based in Zambia for six years and South Africa for three years, Dave helped build the foundational elements of the organization including program design, partnership engagement, geographic expansion, and the Buffalo Bicycle social enterprise strategy.
Prior to joining WBR, Dave had a fifteen-year career in investment banking and was a Senior Vice President at FBR Capital Markets in Washington, D.C. Dave has a Bachelor of Science in Business from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Members and guests, please welcome Dave Neiswander!
Additional Resources
Learn more about World Bicycle Relief at: https://worldbicyclerelief.org/
Links tied to the presentation:
Community Health Worker Ramadahn Bakari
https://worldbicyclerelief.org/improving-healthcare-outcomes-with-two-wheels/
Palabana: A Community On The Move
https://youtu.be/LMW7OenNLts
Upcoming program recording schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
