The MOJO VELO Project: Mobile Journalists on Bicycles

Why are a group of Zambian youth not playing football or going to the cinema on a Saturday afternoon? In Lusaka, for 30 minutes every Saturday, a youth radio takeover occurs. Tomorrow’s leaders talk to the world about the importance of acting on climate change, raising awareness and finding solutions. We joined them as they prepared for their broadcast on the 5th August 2016: 

To find out more, visit:

• www.agentsforchangefoundationzambia.org
• www.childrensradiofoundation.org

Cliff the Beekeeper (Story 8)

Mojo Velo met Cliff Maunze, who works at Environment Africa and is based in Zimbabwe, at the GreenPop Zambia Festival of Action. He loves bees. So should you! They are central to food security since they pollinate 80-90% of all food producing plants in the world, are vital for biodiversity and give us that delicious sweet treat, honey.

Cliff is an enthusiastic trainer of farmers in Southern Africa and if he keeps up his rate of training (he’s trained over 1000 farmers so far) soon whole swathes of the continent will be producing high quality honey, preserving woodlands and earning a vital and significant income that will help make them more resilient to future environmental change.

Check out www.environmentafrica.org for more information.

Open Streets Mitchells Plain Returns the Streets to People (Story 1)

Imagine if streets were built for people, and not for cars.

Before MoJo Velo left Cape Town, we joined the bike bus to cycle to Open Streets Mitchells Plain – to see for ourselves how the people of Cape Town are bridging social divides and ditching the car by reclaiming their streets. Check out Mojo Velo's short video as we joined in on Sun 03 April 2016:

As cyclists, we love the concept of closing the streets to cars. But Open Streets does more than that. Open Streets was born in Bogota, so while it’s not an idea conjured up by an African – we love the way that the diverse people of Cape Town have embraced and welcomed it. It will take a lot to displace the car as the dominant carbon-emitter, space-taker, noise creator and air pollution maker of our rapidly growing cities – but Open Streets helps us all to imagine what streets could become: a healthier, carbon-free and more inclusive place.

To find out more about Open Streets Cape Town and when the next car-free day will happen, check out www.openstreets.co.za  and follow them on Twitter: @openstreetsCT