About

For a number of years now, my wife has been involved with an inspirational charitable organisation African vision Malawi. As a family of keen cyclists we have decided to take part in a 250km sponsored bike ride raising funds for this charity.

The expedition will involve cycling in the heat, over rough terrain, 50km a day, in the rural areas, close to Lake Malawi – with some rest stops along the way! A challenge for us all, it is going to be particularly hard for my son who is 10 years old.

At the end of the bike ride, we will be staying in - Sam’s Village (please read on and see the ‘film’ below..) and visiting Songwe School. (African Vision Malawi has 18 educational partnerships, linking schools in Malawi with schools in the UK. Through regular correspondence both teachers and the children learn ‘from’ and ‘about’ each other.) my son’s school has for the last two years been linked to Songwe – a marginalised school in a rural district, with very limited resources, large classes and a shortage of teachers.

African Vision Malawi (AVM) is a registered charity, whose mission is to see: “a healthy, educated and self-sufficient community in Malawi” – one of the poorest countries in the world. Started nearly 15 years ago, AVM has made an incredible difference – through providing clean water, nutrition, sanitation, education and training to 40,000 children and vulnerable adults. The charity’s aim is to help people to help themselves, by enabling them to become self-supporting and thereby build better, fairer lives. To this end, it has worked together with the local people over the last 5 years, to build an inspirational Vocational Training Village called ‘Sam’s Village’, using traditional materials and skills.You can find more details about the Charity and several interesting films of its work in Malawi here: http://www.africanvision.org.uk/

Sam’s Village is a self-sustaining training village with solar power and permaculture gardens built ‘by’ the local people, ‘for’ the local people - with the Charity’s support. Recognised by UNESCO, AVM has received initial funding through the UNESCO STEP (Skills and Technical Education Programme) initiative to launch an ambitious series of vocational training courses to help some of the most vulnerable (orphans, disabled people, marginalised women and those with HIV, who struggle to get training elsewhere…) become financially independent.

Over 200 people already have been trained during a residential stay at Sam’s Village. With these skills, they are now offering invaluable services to their local community and providing for themselves and their extended families. The UNESCO grant ends early next year, but you can help this life-changing work to continue. Your donation will help at least one person to attend a course for free, fund their training and living costs. (Within 2 years this programme aims to become self-sufficient as training organisations pay to use Sam’s Village but for now, we need to help fund its early stages.) You can see Sam’s Village and hear from some of the people whose lives it has transformed, by watching the film HERE

Please support me and my family as we cycle 250km through Malawi during this Easter holidays 2020. We are paying all of our own cost to participate. Thus, every penny of your donation will go directly to some of the most vulnerable young people in Malawi. African Vision Malawi prides itself on having only volunteers in the UK. There are ‘no’ paid staff… Thank you so much for helping to make a difference.