The project
In the context of the minor International Entrepreneurship & Development a team of multidisciplinary students travelled to Kisumu, Kenya to help designing bike accessories for the local charitable business, CooP-Kenya. The team consists of two Technical Policy and Management students, Sjoerd Kop and Bram de Kruiff, and one Civil Engineering student, Charlotte Mekel.
The team will do the project for CooP-Kenya, located in Kisumu. CooP-Kenya is a non-profit organization which focuses on improving local people's livelihoods by selling, renting and giving away bikes to people who can use them to get access to work, education and healthcare.
The bikes that are sold do not have bike accessories or the accessories are unreasonably expensive. Therefor the team will work on new accessories or new production methods to find a solution for this problem. With the accessories, CooP wants to sell, rent or give away better bikes to their customers.
Different challenges can arise in such a project. Of course there is the design component; how to design accessories like a double bike stand which is sturdy but without using too much material. Then there is the entrepreneurial challenge: what do the Kenyans need, what do they think they need, how much are they willing to pay for a product, what is a sound business model for CooP (specifically the accessories), et cetera. Finally there is the cultural challenge: what are the cultural differences, in what way can they be an obstacle and is it possible to bend the obstacles to our advantages, how can the input be implemented in a lasting way, et cetera.Location: Jinja, Uganda (CooP-Uganda) or Kisumu, Kenya (CooP-Kenya)
Check for more info on CooP-Africa: http://www.coop-africa.org
Check for more info on African Bicycle Design: http://www.coop-africa.org/en/research-development/