One of the best things about volunteering for the Alpkit Foundation is that every day, inspiring individuals and groups share their projects, ambitions, and dreams with us.
Samy Kwizera is one such person. Bantu Ubuntu Be-cycling is a unique and refreshing project, and the realisation of Samy’s ambition to enrich remote communities across Africa using just pedal power and his own experience.
The project involves cycling across Africa, engaging with impoverished and remote communities to raise awareness of sustainability, mental health, and physical well-being in remote and impoverished areas throughout Africa.
Bantu Ubuntu was inspired by Samy's journey back home to Rwanda after volunteering for The Treehouse Community, a sustainability project based in Auroville, India. Over the course of the journey, Samy stayed with hosts and taught dance to children living on the streets and in slums. He was inspired not only by rapidity with which young people learned in spite of language barriers, but by the confidence that learning a new skill gave them, and the therapeutic value of dance with regards to their physical and mental well-being.
Drawing on his background in sustainability, music, and youth work, in addition to his personal experience with sufferers of aids, he is now engaging with communities by teaching permaculture and yoga to women and teaching dance to children, enabling him engage with communities and to raise awareness of protection against HIV and aids. The project will take around 18 months, and by sharing his journey on social media and by blogging, Samy hopes to also raise awareness of the communities themselves and the challenges that they face.
In some respects, Bantu Ubuntu Be-Cycling is also a quest of discovery for Samy, who plans on writing a book at the end of his journey to investigate the relationship between drums and humanity. We look forward to hearing how he gets on, and reading about his experience!
The Alpkit Foundationsupports projects that enable people to overcome the obstacles preventing them from Going Nice Places and Doing Good Things.