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AMWE PEACE RIDE 2024
2024 AMWE PEACE RIDE
Event
Join us for our third annual Amwe Peace Ride! On November 16-17th, local teams from Kenya and California will unite together (amwe) in a movement for women's empowerment. The CA Amwe Peace ride team will embark on a 50-100-mile bike ride from Cuesta to Big Sur up the sage-crested coast. In true Amwe Peace Ride fashion, our partnering ride team of 20 epic cyclists will journey the hills of Eastern Kenya from Meru to Tharaka. Amwe Makenna women's group partners will join the movement as they walk and sing across their native lands. We move together as one team- powered by purpose, solidarity, and allyship. This Amwe ride is a moving prayer, a celebration of femme power, and a call for the world we want to create.
Purpose
This year's 2024 ride is wildly exciting. First, because it involves you. Second, we are finally ready to raise funding for building our Amwe Village Center. We have already paid for the first half of our 2.2-acre plot by the river in Tharaka, Kenya! The November ride's goal is to raise funding towards making the rest of the land down payment (4k), building a village empowerment center (8k), and constructing fencing/clean water tank/bathrooms (4k). The Amwe village center will serve as a community refuge. Our Tharkan partners have expressed the need for a central space to host their existing community therapy groups (cancer support groups, young mothers, women's groups) and training spaces for our Amwe women's small business projects and a village farm.
Our Dream
This land, created by the power of your pedals, will also serve as a space where we can begin to meet one another. Every time we are together on the land, the Makenna women's group members excitedly ask when people from the States will be there so they can teach us to dance, belly laugh, weave baskets, and cook. This project is built on listening. Thus, we hope to offer a cross-cultural journey to Kenya in the next few years (2026?). Our dream is to create a space where we can all sit side by side, climb/bike some mountains, build with mud, and explore what it means to learn from one another. A place to be Amwe.
What Amwe Peace Ride pedals have created in the past
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10,507 individuals screened for Cancer in rural Kenyan communities through Naledi Medical Camps
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6,000+ collective miles cycled by individuals joined together representing over 8 defined tribes
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1000 Neem tree nursery planted & grow bags gardens exploding from doorsteps in Tharaka
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1000 households received a month of Emergency Food during stage three drought in Samburu/Turkana
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23 Women's small businesses started via training and seed grants within the Tharaka community
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6 Community-led training programs hosted on table-banking, community planning, sustenance gardening, soap making
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35 cancer-positive women receiving emergency cancer treatment (chemo/surgery/meds) through NHIF health insurance coverage
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23 households of women and children receiving 2yrs worth of primary health care provided via NHIF healthcare
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3 Cancer Support Groups sprouting up in Chukka, Tharaka, and Meru
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1 Widow Support Group started in California inspired by Kenyan tradition
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196 individuals joined together in California, inspired by the sense of community represented in Kenya
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1 Latrine (community restroom) built
Countless Random Miracles: Elders biking with us in the streets of Kenya in rainboots and bikes with no chains, volunteer doctors & gynecologists screening 3,000 people in one weekend for free. Donations of bread, gear, mentorship, handmade soups, fiddle tunes, and surprise cakes by people we have never met. Aunties, uncles, and grandmas pooling money for the good womankind. Biking in the dark, biking in the rain, biking farther than we knew we could. Lives were saved, skills learned, and unfamiliar people turned to family.
Bikes are powerful, you are powerful, and we are powerful change-makers together.
The California Event Details
Amwe extends a warm invitation for women & gender expansive riders of all shapes, sizes and bike experience levels to ride (no cis-men at this time). It's not a competition, but a collective journey of empowerment. The ride is a testament to what we can achieve when we come together, traversing dirt, mountains, and coastlines to create a ripple effect of health in the global community.
The Route
We invite all experience levels to join us in a cross-cultural movement with purpose. Join the CA Women's Peace Ride team as we journey up the Central Coast from SLO to Big Sur, CA (Land of the yak titu titu yak tihini- Northern Chumash Tribe), where we will snuggle into our home for the night. Our scenic route will be along Hwy 1, travel up the coast, and incorporate rest stops for water, dance breaks, and all the snacks. There will be two starting points, including two mileage options for those looking for more advanced and beginner route options. Our event begins with a send-off on the morning of Saturday, Nov 16th. The following days, Saturday and Sunday, will primarily be spent biking and connecting as we weave up and down the iconic jade coast. Our moonlit evening will include a nourishing meal, a fireside musical guest, and a celebration of our time. Participants will not need to have a bike rack/panniers as we will have the option to transport overnight gear directly to the camping area by car. The entire ride is paved (primarily flat with the occasional hill:) and is best suited for road bikes (Disc brakes required for the 100m route option). Bike repair & medical support is provided en route if needed. If you need assistance locating a bike/tent/any gear, please don't be shy to reach out, and we'd be happy to do our best to find one for borrowing. More in-depth details will be provided to our ride team before the event.
Dates
Pre-Trip Meeting (Important all participants attend)
Sunday, November 3rd- 6:00 pm (In-Person, SLO County-Location TBA)
Meet our team and get orientated to the trip, purpose, and fundraising. Then, get tips on bike-packing, ergonomics, and safety.
Let's drink chai & get pumped for this journey together.
Sponsor Weeks
Sunday, Nov 3rd-End of November
In the weeks leading up to the trip, each participant is invited to reach out to their community to find their circle of support. We try to focus on reaching out to raise as much as possible in the two weeks prior to ride!
Peace Ride Weekend
Day 1-Saturday Nov 16th
We will meet up in the morning, sort our gear, have an opening ceremony, and begin the bike journey to Big Sur.
Evening- decompress, enjoy a meal, fireside council, slumber
Day 2-Sunday, Nov 17th
Eat Brekkie, pack up, and pedal on home!
Post-Ride Celebration and Integration
Date TBD
Location: You decide the start point that best fits you depending on how far you'd like to bike. The shorter ride will take off from Harmony Headlands 20-30 miles each way to Big Sur (Round trip 40-60 miles). The more extended ride option begins at Cuesta College and finishes in Big Sur ( 50 miles each way, around 100 miles round trip). Our team camps for the evening on a beautiful private property site in Big Sur, where our generous hosts have granted us access to potable water, bathrooms, and an insane view. *A note on mileage: If you have concerns about your ability to bike this route, please reach out. Let's work together; you are stronger than you know.
Out-of-Town Participants: Joining us from the out-of-town epic! We would love to have you, hear you, and diversify our team. The nearest airport and train station are located in San Luis Obispo. If you need a place to stay the night before or after the event, we are likely to be able to find you a cozy place to sleep or camp within the community.
Cost: The ticket cost for the weekend is a suggested donation of between $60-80 dollars. This will hold your place in the event and cover dinner and campsite costs. If ticket cost is a financial barrier, contact Kenz, and we will work out scholarship opportunities. As mentioned above, this event is a fundraiser for Women's health in collaboration with a community in Tharaka, Kenya. We intend to have a community of riders motivated to fundraise and share the message in a way that feels authentic to them. IE- reaching out/speaking to their individual friends, families, and communities, posting to social media, blogging, etc. We would love for Peace Riders to share the story of what they are doing so that we can utilize the potent power of the community to fundraise together (amwe).
Included: Pre-trip orientation instruction/meeting, 1-night camping in beautiful Big Sur, several nourishing weekend meals, opportunities for celebration, and reflection with our teams across nations.
Our Partners
In the bush of Eastern Kenya is an indigenous pastoralist village of strong, resilient, belly-laughing Tharkakan women. Here is Co-founder Roberts's home village, a group of 24 vibrant women who fittingly named themselves the "Makenna (joy) Women's group." The Makenna Women's Group has been meeting every Thursday Morning at 6am on this rock face together for years to sing, table bank, and start small businesses to sustain themselves and their children. Each participant brings .50 cents; they pool their money, laugh, and cry. They do life together. These women are our partners, sisters, and friends. The MMG consistently expresses so much excitement to work together-to work amwe. They are incredible hosts, dancers, farmers, natural builders, basket weavers, mothers, and entrepreneurs. These women are bursting with an abundance of cultural wisdom & tradition to share. Most Amwe efforts focus on exchange and support with this vibrant group. We have much to learn from one another.
How We Send Funds (Efficacy)
We send the money directly to the certified CBO Naledi non-profit business account and employ responsible Tharakan community members to assist with the on-project implementation and checkups on progress. Amwe Ca team members personally check up on project progress and efficacy during our regular visits to Kenya. Through the power of strategy and long-standing trusting community partnership, you can be assured that your contribution goes into the hands and hearts it should.
Contact: If you have questions, concerns, fears, dreams, or desires, big or small, please don't be shy.
Feel free to contact Kenz, and we will work things out amwe.
Email: Amwemovement@gmail.com
Phone:805-895-7100
