Canadian bike shop saves lives in Malawi
UXBRIDGE, ON--A group of 20-somethings from small-town Ontario has sent more than 2,000 bicycles to pastors and health care workers in rural Malawi.
Ted Webb was inspired to start a charity that sends bicycles to Africa after he and a group from his church participated in a building project in Malawi in 2004. While there, he observed what an important role bicycles play in the local economy.
"Most people in Malawi live on less than two dollars a day," says Ben Voss, director of the organization named Africycle. "They cannot afford cars. They cannot even afford the bus.
"The effect that a bicycle can have in a person's life is priceless. It enables people to get their goods to market to sell. It enables them to collect water and firewood for their family. It enables them to have businesses and find employment."
After the church group returned from its building trip, they collected 180 bicycles to send to Malawian pastors.
In 2005 Webb and Voss went to Malawi to see the difference the bikes were making. On the way they stopped at a South African conference on how bicycles can be used to combat poverty in Africa--and the idea for Africycle was born.
Since then, the small charity has sent some 2,300 bicycles to Malawi. In 2006 they established The Hub, Uxbridge's only bicycle repair shop, where they collect used bicycles for donation and sell bikes and parts.
Proceeds from Canadian sales are used to send the donated bikes to their Africycle shop in Zomba, Malawi, which opened in 2007.
"We're trying to provide Malawians cheap, reliable, quality, affordable transportation," says Jonny Perrott, country director for Malawi. "For each bike we sell in Canada we can send one-and-a-half bikes to Malawi. Here a bicycle is a toy. In Malawi, bikes are a matter of life and death."
"Our recent focus has been giving bicycles to health care workers," Voss says. "The health care system is overwhelmed. Malawi has a population of 13 million with only 94 qualified doctors. There are over one million orphans. Some 14 per cent of people in Malawi have AIDS--in Zomba that number is 30 per cent.
"People get excited by the power a bike has in the life of an individual. But even that is overshadowed by the impact that bike can have in the hands of a health care worker."
"Each $150 sponsorship allows us to get a bike to a health care worker in Malawi, enabling them to reach thousands of people they would otherwise not reach--literally saving hundreds of lives."
The shop in Zomba also sells and repairs bicycles--raising money for Grace Orphan Care Centre, run by Ernest Ponde Ponde.
Voss and Webb met Ponde Ponde on their trip in 2005. At the time he had about 20 children coming to his drop-in program. Today, thanks to Africycle's funding, Grace Orphan Care Centre takes in over 200 children, with the help of six paid staff and four volunteers. The team has also helped construct a dining hall and classrooms.
Webb is currently in Zomba heading up the work. Perrott is heading to Malawi this month to replace him for a 10 month stint to run the work and train the local bike mechanics.
"For me the future is more interesting than the past," Perrott says. "Grace spends a lot of money buying food. We are planning a fully irrigated 10-acre farm, including agriculture and livestock, which will feed 250 mouths a day.
"I get pretty excited. It's pretty neat doing stuff. Every day is different. Every day you learn something. What we're doing is measurable and we can see it making a difference."
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