Baynton demonstrates to journalists in Gulu district how the bamboo bicycle is made

By Chris Ocowun

A NEW project in northern Uganda will soon start exporting bicycles made out of bamboo to California.

The African Ellipsi Project, a church based organisation, is finalising plans to build a factory in Gulu town to make the bicycles known as Bamboosero.

“One frame of these bicycles goes for $500 in California,” Sally Baynton, the executive director of the project told journalists on Wednesday at the Gulu Bible Centre where a sample of the bicycles are being made.

She said six sample bicycles would be ready by the end of next week.

“These bicycles are in Ghana and Zambia. We shall make the bicycles in large quantities and ship them to California where there is ready market,” she said, adding that the biclyes would be sold cheaply to the locals.

Baynton said the bicycles would assist the farmers to transport their agricultural produce to the markets for sale.

According to Baynton, the bamboos are cut into small pieces and then treated for five months to make them strong and water proof before being joined with sisal threads and gum.

“They are cheaper, stronger and more environmentally friendly than the ordinary bicycles,” she said.

Baynton is being assisted on the project by her husband, Barr and a colleague, Deo Chate.

She added that they also plan to start bamboo farms in the north to ensure that there is constant supply of raw material.

According to her, the Bamboosero bicycles will be made under the Gulu Hope Project and the proceeds from the sales would be used to drill boreholes, support education and other development activities in the region.

Baynton said the pupils of Antonia school in Texas have partnered with Palyec village in Patiko sub-county in Gulu district where they are building a school and drilling boreholes.

The district speaker, Martin Ojara, pledeged that the district authorities would provide land for the bamboo farm.

“This is just the beginning. We want to prove to the world that Gulu can be the heart of creativity despite the suffering we faced during the LRA insurgency.”