globalbike is honored to introduce cyclist, Mary Beall Adler, as she prepares to ride across the African continent to support women entrepreneurs in Tanzania.
Mary Beall Adler is a successful entrepreneur with the heart of an artist. A small business owner for more than 25 years, Adler is the visionary behind the Georgetown Bagelry, popular retail and wholesale bakery in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, and author of Who Scooped My Bagel?: One Woman’s Story of Love, Loss, and Success. Mary provides creativity coaching to other emerging business entrepreneurs, inspiring the development of their strategic plans and implementation of their vision.
In 2022, Mary will be riding the Tour d’Afrique, a 6,850-mile ride down the length of the continent of Africa to raise money for women-led bike businesses in Tanzania – businesses that accelerate the hard work of rural entrepreneurs to provide for their families. Mary is pledging to raise $100,000 for globalbike and asks for your support and invites you to celebrate the strength and power of women.
“My preparation for the 2022 Tour d’Afrique will require more than a year’s worth of training. In January 2022, when I arrive in Cairo, I will be embarking on a four-month ride that will take me through the same terrain and conditions that the women I aim to support traverse daily to reach markets and retrieve water. I will experience firsthand the difficulty of transportation in places like Tanzania, but also the transformative power of a sturdy bicycle. Pledging support to my ride will directly benefit these women as they strive to not only reach their potential but far exceed it. I look forward to sharing this adventure with you.” — Mary Beall Adler
globalbike is a US-based non-profit organization that equips and trains women in rural Tanzania to run self-sustaining bike businesses that meet the transportation needs of their communities and propel women into sustainable careers. These programs make bicycles affordable and accessible for individuals of all income levels while creating economic security for the women’s groups who own and run them.
Women who usually earn between $54–58 per month via small business projects reported 25-57% increases in monthly income when they used a bike to transport goods instead of walking or paying for transportation. Women cut transportation time by up to 65% when they use bikes instead of walking on foot and carrying goods by hand.
Mary’s contributions will allow globalbike to expand services for women entrepreneurs in Tanzania, so that women-owned bike cooperatives can increase access to bikes for individuals in their communities and so that globalbike can support additional cooperatives and expand the geographic reach of its services and philanthropy.
Donate to Mary’s ride at globalbike.org/Mary.