This summer will see me cycling around the coast of England
and Wales, over 4,000 kms and a total climb of 2.6 times the height of Mt
Everest, to raise money for African Vision Malawi, formerly known as the Landirani Trust. This charity was set up by a good friend,
Heather Palmer, in response to a visit in 2005 to the area where she was
brought up and her parents served as missionaries.
Heather and her trustees decided to work in a discrete area
of Malawi 30kms from the capital, Lilongwe.
This area has 45,000 people in around 200 villages where there are some
of the country’s poorest people who receive minimal help from local or central
government and their needs are huge. The charity works with orphans, HIV
sufferers and disabled people as well as helping village chiefs and elders to
support the most vulnerable in their communities. In the early days of the charity they
focussed on providing clean water, blankets and other essentials. They quickly progressed to more permanent solutions
providing wells and bore holes, feeding stations for the under 5s, school
blocks, agricultural development in villages and a maternity unit. The focus today is entirely around
self-sufficiency: helping people to help themselves. Over the next 3 years this will be achieved through
creating a ‘Training Village’, a project on a 10 acre site donated to the
charity by a number of village chiefs which will impact many thousands of
people and will transform their lives, giving them training in building,
agriculture, tailoring, craftwork, setting up and running small businesses
encouraging self-sufficiency, health and a future income.
And this is where I come in... As with all charities raising funds for projects is key and last year I committed to this marathon cycle ride around the coast of England and Wales in a bid to raise £20,000 which will build the main training workshop and 3 blocks of family accommodation for the trainees. This cyclemarathon has the support of the Bishop of Kingston who has asked his fellow clergy to provide me accommodation (or at least a garden in which to pitch my tent) on the way round.
But before this adventure can begin there's a lot of planning, fund-raising, training and hard work to be done. And I promise to keep you posted...
