Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
MORE than 2 000 villagers including schoolchildren in nine wards under Hwange Rural District Council have received bicycles in the past three years to help improve mobility and access to essential services.
Most villagers in areas around Mbizha, Milonga, Chisuma, Jambezi, Gondwa, Kwalala and others outside Victoria Falls City walk between 10km and 20km to access as health services, schools, shops, dip tanks and market places.
Realising the need to capacitate communities and improve access to key essential services, Harare based World Bicycle Relief came up with a programme to donate bicycles in partnership with ZFhilft of Germany.
Victoria Falls based Greenline Africa Trust is the implementing partner.
The programme, termed mobilised communities started in 2020.
The programme has four pillars namely education, health, livelihoods and conservation and has changed lives including improving pass rates.
To date 2 400 bicycles worth more than US$480 000 have been distributed mostly to pupils both in primary and secondary school and now the programme is being expanded to members of the community.
It is targeting key members of the community such as village heads, pump minders and village health workers.
WBR senior programmes manager Ms Irene Mulunjwana said distance to the nearest social service and potential to make an impact in community is considered when selecting beneficiaries.
“We are partners with Greenline Africa and we have been observing over the years the bicycle programme growing in Hwange, thanks to our partners in Germany who have been supporting us over three years.
“We hope we will develop as a community through the power of the bicycle. We have done wards one to nine and want to cover all the 20 wards in Hwange rural,” said Ms Mulunjwana.
She was speaking during the handover of 151 bicycles to Gondwa, Tiba, Shantani, Sisiyatu, Chenambi, Kwalala and Makoni villagers at Milonga Clinic in Mbizha ward 6 last week.
Greenline Africa monitoring and evaluation coordinator Mr Muziwethu Sidambe said the bicycle programme also helps women who have been struggling to sell their products because of distance to market centres.
“When the programme started focus was on schools and after realising that there was improvement in pass rates, we then shifted the programme to include the community at large targeting key people who have been facing challenges doing their work. Some travel between 10 and 20km for certain services.
“Looking at the wards previously covered we realised there was great change,” he said.
Chenambi 1 village head Mr Cosmas Shoko said the bicycles will help villagers when attending important meetings at the chief’s kraal or school.
Chenambi 4 village head Mrs Patricia Mathe (70) said: “I am not sure if I will be able to ride it since I am now old but this will make it easy for me to travel to meetings.”
Mrs Concilia Ngwenya-Shoko (38), a minder at Sisiyathu village said she had been walking close to 20km to dip tanks and the bicycle will help her when going to work.
Deputy Ambassador of Germany to Zimbabwe, Christian Hara Oelfke who was representing ZFhilft said the German partners will always help communities to improve livelihoods. — @ncubeleon
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