African Journey!
We celebrate mobility, access, and freedom with YOU and the
BUV Drivers in 27 countries worldwide! Please venture across the terrain below.
Tanzania BUV Factory
As BUV plans to direct 95% of our future BUV orders to African factories, we are devoting much of our creative efforts to ensuring that the BUV can be produced with common tools and supplies. Our newest partner, BUV Tanzania, recently launched and assembled their first 5 BUV kits in Arusha, Tanzania. Their plan is to begin leasing BUVs in July. They also aim to transition from kit-assembly to “manufacturing” in the near future. Much thanks to volunteer engineer Bob Wittenbach, for spending 4 weeks with them to assist their startup efforts. Board members Scott Meyer and Ralph Meyer (unrelated) also traveled to Arusha to get a better understanding of how the BUV is used and how to adapt it better for East Africa. We anticipate more traveling to Tanzania as we lend expertise toward their manufacturing effort. We are grateful to CMF International for their support & involvement in this project.
Impact Story – Haiti
(from Operation Mobilization) “The BUV is critical to our ministry and business! We are raising chickens in Merceron, Haiti (fairly close to Port au Prince). We have 2 broiler houses. The roads routinely flood in this area and the BUV is often the only vehicle that can get to market. It has the key traits we need …torque and traction!! We use it to sell the chickens, pick up feed, and for general purpose transportation. When the BUV is down, everyone feels the pain. Our business funds many aspects of the local economy. For example, the government has not been paying the teachers in this area…so our business has paid the teachers for the last 7 months. When the BUV is down, our business is severly hampered. Everyone here knows that it is vital to our local economy. Thank you!”
Farming God’s Way is having marvelous results in Africa as it teaches farmers how to plant and harvest with techniques that boost yields and maintain the richness of the land. Agri-Stewards is working with Hope in the Harvest in Liberia to mechanize FGW. They use a BUV to pull a compost applicator followed by a simple planter. With just a little technology, farmers can work larger plots that allow them to take the extra yields to market and rise above a subsistence level. We love to see farmers using BUVs! Our director is speaking at the International Flying Farmers Conference in July.
Recent Shipments
A special thank you to our donors for making these placements possible!
Hope for the Harvest – Liberia Ngodzi Ministries – Malawi
Bethesda Mission – Liberia Evangelical Friends – D.R. Congo
PacMoore (2) – Kenya Samaritans Purse Hospital-Congo
Grueling African Roadtrip!
Since January, long time volunteer Mike Lantz has bicycled AFRICA (yes…from Egypt to South Africa, every fantastic inch!) Thank you Mike for raising awareness for affordable transportation and also raising funds for BUV. For those giving a dime per mile, please send in a donation of $746 (for 7460 miles!!!!).
75 Years of Service
Wurster Construction Inc. built a BUV as their 75th Anniversary Service Project. They will send it to Youth for Christ International in Liberia as part of their Companies With a Mission (CWAM) Service challenge.
Truckin’ Water: Champion UC Bearcats
University of Cincinnati BUV Bearcats brought home the victory at the 13th Annual BUV Competition! We use the annual competition to generate new ideas and over 25 universities have participated over the years. For the 6 hour driving event this spring, the teams had
to maneuver their BUV loaded with
three 55-gal barrels of water (1375 lbs.) around a muddy 2.1 mile off-road track, off-loading their water and pumping fresh water into the barrels every
third lap. It was a brutal test and 80% of the entries had breakdowns during the event. Thank you to
University of Arkansas and to
University of San Diego for donating their vehicles to charities.