BLANTYRE, Malawi (The Daily Times), April 4, 2008:Seventy five-year-old William John Kambalame has teamed up with 28-year-old Manuel Steven Gushe to cycle from Nsanje to Chitipa in a bid to raise over K5 million for Mwala Woyera Community-based Organisation, which is situated in Salima.
Kambalame and Gushe are expected to embark on their two-month adventure on April 15.
“We plan to complete the exercise on June 15,” Kambalame said. “We could have taken few days, perhaps less than 10 days to complete the exercise but we will be stopping in different areas to plead for sponsorship for our organisation.”
He said they decided to embark on the exercise after realising that their organisation, which looks after over 200 elderly people and feeds over 60 children among others, was in dire need of money.
“Apart from that we also help people that are affected or infected by HIV and Aids,” he said.
Kambalame, who claimed to have cycled from Salima to Blantyre within a day, appealed to people to help them in cash or kind.
“We need material and financial support for our journey and organisation,” he said. “The money which we will raise we are going to share it with other organisations within the district.
Mwala Woyera Community is situated at Bwanje in Salima.
Kambalame’s partner Gushe, who bought the two mountain bikes from Botswana, said they were prepared for the adventure.
“We are physically prepared but we just want kind people to help us. People should not doubt us. We cycle from Ntcheu to Blantyre in six hours only,” he said.
The two also disclosed that after the Nsanje to Chitipa adventure they would then cycle to South Africa later in the year.
In January, top cyclist Jonathan Kaiya rode his bicycle for eight days from Blantyre to Kalonga to raise money in aid for Malawi Prison Missionary reform. He covered about 1,500 km and for a start he raised K169,000.
Last year, South African missionary Felix Starker also cycled for 30 days to his home country to raise funds for Blantyre-based Streek Kids Awareness, an NGO that rehabilitates street children.
By Mphatso Malidadi
Copyright @ 2005 BNL Limited, Malawi
