(22 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wedza, Zimbabwe – 6 March 2025
1. Wide Anna Bhobha and Hilda Takadini arriving at market in electric powered cargo tricycle
2. Various of Bhobha at stall
3. SOUNDBITE (Shona) Anna Bhobho, tricycle owner:
+++SOUNDBITE PARTLY COVERED WITH SHOTS 2++
“My husband now relies on me to cover most household expenses, from groceries including school fees for our children and buying furniture. Before I could not do it but thanks to this tricycle I can now also chip in and help.”
4. Wide health worker on her tricycle
7. SOUNDBITE (Shona) Josephine Nyevhe, health worker:
+++SOUNDBITE PARTLY COVERED WITH SHOTS 8, 9 & 10+++
“As you can see, there are pregnant women behind me. The other day, I received a call to attend to a pregnant woman. I’m here to respond to emergencies, so that day I used my Hamba tricycle to rush her to the clinic, where she received assistance.”
8. Wide child walking past tricycle
9. Wide of Nyevhe measuring a child’s growth with a weighing scale hung on a tree branch
10. Wide of tricycle with Nyevhe in the background
11. Wide of Carlin Thandi Ngandu inspecting tricycles at the charging centre
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlin Thandi Ngandu, community engagement coordinator, Mobility for Africa:
+++SOUNDBITE PARTLY COVERED WITH SHOTS 13, 14, 15 & 16+++
“We are providing rural communities with affordable transport solutions, especially to women. Most of the women spend countless hours trying to reach the markets, the hospitals and also water sources, so the tricycle has just improved the last mile mobility.”
13. Wide tricycle owner arriving at battery charging centre
14. Wide technicians removing battery from tricycle to recharge
15. Wide technicians carrying battery to charge
16. Wide technician charging battery
17. Various transporters waiting for customers
STORYLINE:
Anna Bhobho was once a silent observer in her home in rural Zimbabwe.
The 31-year-old housewife was excluded from financial and family decision-making in a deeply patriarchal society.
Today, however, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to the electric cargo tricycle she now owns.
In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities, such as operating public transportation.
However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing this trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance.
Bhobho takes crops to market from farmers in the Wedza district, about 150 kilometers (nearly 100 miles) from Harare.
It gives her an income and allows her to help pay for essentials.
“Before I could not do it but thanks to this tricycle I can now also chip in and help," she says.
The tricycles are called “Hamba”, meaning “go” in Ndebele, and are powered by solar-charged lithium-ion batteries.
Local startup ‘Mobility for Africa’ piloted the project in 2019 by leasing the vehicles to groups of women for the equivalent of 15 US dollars a month.
Swapping a lithium battery for a fully recharged one after about 100 kilometers (about 70 miles) costs $1.
Today, individual women, like Bhobho, can own them through a lease-to-purchase program.
Bhobho earns up to $300 a month, comparable to government workers like schoolteachers.
Beyond income, Bhobho has gained self-esteem and respect.
She now owns land, has opened a small grocery store and is paying off a car.
And she has been able to move her children from an underfunded rural public school to a better-equipped private institution.
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