Fluor recently hosted an event in Secunda where 75 Buffalo bicycles were handed over to 65 successful Wildlands’ Tree-preneurs who participated in a community programme launched in eMbalenhle during 2011 to aid and support the development of sustainable communities and ecosystem restoration activities.

Fluor, a global engineering and construction company, is committed to leaving a positive legacy in the communities where they execute projects and has to that effect put in place a community project that involved Fluor partnering with the Wildlands Conservation Trust, who provided the funding to facilitate the programme, and Qhubeka who sponsored the bicycles.

“The project involves “Tree-preneurs” who collect indigenous tree seeds to plant, grow and care for. Upon meeting the requirements, (100 trees measuring at least 30 cm in height), the “Tree-preneurs” are legible for receiving a bicycle,” said Fluor South Africa’s Thabang Tawarima.

The programme is structured around the recruitment of a network of community based members by a project facilitator from Wildlands. The recruitment was undertaken broadly within the eMbalenhle community and several nodes with champions to help with day to day needs of the participants were identified. 

The recruited community members were then offered training during 2012 and in 2013 the germination and planting of their seeds started.  The “Tree-preneurs” started the tree planting process in their backyards. The process is a low cost platform where Tree-preneurs use discarded soda plastic bottles to grow the trees in.  

The project facilitator offers extensive on-going training to these community members in terms of the handling and germinating of seeds in various climatic conditions. The project facilitator also undertakes the measuring and collection of the trees and is ultimately the link between Wildlands and the community.

According to Tawarima, participants can plant as many trees as they can as there is no limit in terms of the number of bicycles that one can receive.

The 65 proud recipients, of which 50 “Tree-preneurs” were women, met all the requirements and grew a total of 7659 trees and by doing so, became legible to exchange their trees for Qhubeka bicycles.

Bicycle recipients can utilize their bicycles in any way they deem fit e.g. transportation or economic gain.  The bicycle carries a unique serial number which matches the legitimate recipient’s identification details.

“This programme has already contributed immensely to the quality of life of many people. The bicycles have played an empowering role in the lives of the people where access to remote areas was improved; children can now spend more time in school as travel time to and from school was shortened (a two hour walk was reduced to 30 minutes in some cases). Healthcare givers can provide more home based health care to their patients as they now have bicycles as a means of transportation,” adds Tawarima.

“Fluor is planning to partner with Qhubeka again to support their BEEP programme (Bicycle Education Empowerment Programme) in an effort to promote education and school attendance by ensuring children are provided with quality bicycles to use as safe transport.” concluded Tawarima.

Images courtesy of Qhubeka

Venetia de Vries
10 December 2013
083 288 9883