Selling eggs was a joyless business for Danai Bvochora for years, as most of the money she earned went to taking the minibus to the market in a rural area of Zimbabwe.
Until an earth-brown, solar-powered electric tricycle changed her life.
“We used to carry loads on our heads. The tricycle reduced the load,” says the 47-year-old from Domboshava, around 40 kilometers north of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.
She carefully loads eggs onto the tricycle’s trailer before setting out on a bumpy five-mile ride to the market.
“We even use it to go to church and pray,” Bvochora said, explaining that a single trip to buy chicken feed at a local business center used to cost her $12.
But charging her new solar-powered vehicle only costs her $2.50 every two weeks, and the mother-of-two is now turning a profit.
Bvochora is among a group of women in Domboshava, a district known for its scenic hills and giant boulders, who received a tricycle last year as part of a European Union-funded project to support small farmers.
The tricycles, assembled by Harare-based social enterprise Mobility for Africa, were first introduced in Zimbabwe in 2019 to help women develop their businesses, said the company’s director, Shantha Bloemen.
In the sparsely populated rural areas of Zimbabwe, where women often have to walk long distances with heavy loads on their heads to trade in produce that sometimes spoils en route in the heat, transport has historically been inadequate.
– Electric Thrust –
But the idea of tackling this with electric tricycles initially raised some eyebrows, said American-born Bloemen, who is a permanent resident of Zimbabwe and lived in the country in the 1990s while working for UNICEF.
“It was very lonely when we started,” Bloemen said, explaining that her team had to work hard to prove to the funders that the idea was viable.
“Nobody has talked about electric mobility in Africa, let alone for rural women.”
Three years later, the social enterprise plans to more than triple its current fleet of 88 motorized vehicles by the end of 2022.
It operates three solar-powered stations where drivers can swap out their lithium battery for a fully charged one if they run out of power — and foot the bill if something breaks.
Zimbabwe has faced difficult economic conditions for more than two decades, with rural areas being particularly hard hit. The country’s economy is mainly supported by the informal sector, which also includes women farmers from Domboshava.
While some of the tricycles – nicknamed “Hamba” or “go” in the local Ndebele language – were bought by the EU and then given away to locals, others are rented out for $5 a day.
Phyllis Chifamba, a 37-year-old mother of four, uses her rented vehicle as a taxi.
Her customers include sick people going to a clinic, pregnant women going to medical check-ups, villagers and farm dwellers doing their shopping and other errands.
“With the money I earn from using the Hamba, I can feed my family and pay for my children’s school fees,” she said.
Mobility for Africa said it plans to expand its activities to other areas.
“African women are the most entrepreneurial and productive, but nobody takes them seriously,” Bloemen said. “If we solve the transport problems, the rural economy will work. Small farmers will bring more products to the market.”
Beneficiary Frasia Gotosa said her small business has improved since she drove to the market as her vegetables no longer rot while waiting for the bus or pushing a wheelbarrow.
“Now I go to the market while my produce is still fresh,” she said.
#Solar #electric #tricycles #bring #women #Zimbabwe
