One of the charitable organizations in Malawi, Muslim Hands on Monday August 7, 2017 donated bicycles to their primary school learners in Chiradzulu district.
The organization has primary and nursery school with upper, lower and reception classes in the district.
There is a total number of 188 learners at the primary of which 172 of them are orphans.
In an interview with Malawi Muslims Official Website, the organization’s Acting Country Director Hella Hamisi Pelasoni said the donation came after the management discovered that many children at the primary were reporting late for classes because they were walking long distances when going to school.
“Most of them were travelling a distance of about 6 kilometers by foot every day, which was not easy for the children especially girls. This made them to report late to school and even miss classes especially during the rainy season.
“So, that’s when we engaged our donors in United Kingdom to see how they could help us reduce the burden. Luckily, we got funding for 25 bicycles which we have donated to the children through their parents. These children mostly come from Kalungwe and Nankwenya villages here in Chiradzulu District,” he said.
One of the women who received the bicycles on behalf of her child Zakifa Idrissa said she was very happy and thanked Muslim Hands Malawi for the good gesture saying this will go in the long way in addressing the problem which her children were facing.
She added that “now God has answered my prayers and that everything will be going smoothly.”
So does Munderanji Mpungalume from Kalungwe who also said she was overwhelmed with joy because her children too were reporting late for classes and come back home exhausted.
“I could not have managed to buy the bicycle on my own,” she said.
On the same development, Muslim Hands also donated other ten bicycles to the women who are under their Women Economic Empowerment project in order to ease the transportation challenges they were facing when carrying their farm produce to the market.
With support from the organization, the women are involved in several agricultural activities but the challenge has been during the harvesting period where they were failing to transport their produce from the farm and access to good market.
“The bicycles have come at a right time because now the women will no longer be limited to do their business within the area. They will be able to travel to other areas like Blantyre where they were failing to reach by foot,” he said.
Pelasoni therefore urged the women who received the bicycles to share with their fellow friends who didn’t have the opportunity as it was not possible for the organization to give everyone.
Muslim Hands Malawi started in 2010, focusing much on relief and food items distributions before concentrating much on economic empowerment activities for women and education for marginalized children.
Their schools enroll any child regardless of religion but priority is given to orphans.
Over MK1million was spent to purchase the bicycles.
