Fred Musunda's story

In Uganda, milk plays an important role in food security and the fight against malnutrition. Fred Musunda collects milk from rural farmers in Luwero (about 61km from the city) and transports it to the rural areas markets and urban individual households.

Farmers in rural areastransport their fresh milk for sale to rural areas markets using milk containers tied on bicycles. Fred was introduced by a friend to CFF because he was so much interested in buying a good used bicycle that could enable him supply fresh milk and ghee to his customers. After obtaining his bicycle on the CFF loan, he supplies 2 cans of milk a day, one in the morning and the other in the evening. He buys a liter of milk from rural farmers at Shs. 800 per liter and sells it at Shs. 1,500 in markets and individual households. He makes a profit margin of Shs. 700 per literwith eachmilk can containing over 40 liters of milk. Before purchasing his bicycle, he was only able to supply 40 liters of milk as opposed to the 80 liters he supplies daily.

Aisha Nakibuka

Aisha Nakibuka purchased this blue bicycle at $90 to expand her small honey and candles business. Since she bought this bicycle, her income doubled from Shs. 250,000 to Shs. 480,000 a month for selling her organic honey to individuals through home deliveries. She is also able to attend meetings between groups and visits to meetings of other bee keeping societies to encourage the exchange of ideas and to spread the word about women’s new roles in bee keeping.

Wilson Kiwanuka

Wilson Kiwanuka aged about 78 years is a farmer growing matooke bananas and coffee in Kayunga district. He fully paid for this bicycle as he recieved some good income from the previous coffee harvests. These bicycles came as a donation from Bikes of the World under the PSO organization and has now merged up with CFF.He belongs to the Nanywenge Farmers Group comprising of 25 farmers and he uses the bicycle to transport coffee seedlings and matooke bananas to the market. He also shares the bicycle with other neighboring farmers who need to buy seedlings or transport goods to the trading center.

Jalia Muwonge

My name is Jalia Muwonge and I’m a banana and pineapple farmer growing fruits on a 3acre piece of land in Kayunga district. I’m a farmer and widow looking after 4 children as their father passed on 3 years ago and I was referred to Cycles For Farmers (CFF) by the National Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (NACWOLA) of which I’m a member, to support my farming activities and obtain an income to fend for my family. I was struggling to take my fresh pineapples and banana harvest to the market due to the limited and expensive commuter taxis/cargo trucks operating on the Kayunga route and preferred working with middlemen who purchased pineapples directly at my small farm. The price of each pineapple purchased at the farm is averagely Shs.800 as compared to the market price of Shs.2000 per pineapple. I really needed a bicycle as it could help me ride to the trading center which is about 10km from my farm and negotiate for a cheaper truck that could fetch my produce of both pineapples and bananas to the Kayunga market. I obtained a Kona bicycle from CFF, and now I no-longer use middle men to buy my produce but I directly sell at the main market. With increased sales and revenue from my produce after purchasing my bicycle, I have been able to complete brick made house and take my children to school. On non-market days, my 1st daughter Noella uses the bicycle to go to a nearby secondary school, fetch water from the well, carry fire-wood, and carry elephant grass for our home cow we recently acquired. I’m so grateful to CFF and I pray many more women in my community will benefit from such a program because we only know the challenges we pass through from stigma, depression, anxiety and poverty and how a miracle bicycle can turn around your challenges into opportunities.