Hi Guys.

This is a charity request to help send me back to Africa this summer to help a local charity teach deaf teenagers how to maintain bicycles and so provide them with life skills, independence and self-employment opportunities.

I am going out to support the work of Prodigal Bikes, a Somerset based charity, who refurbish old donated bikes and ship them out to Africa where they have a huge beneficial impact to the communities they are donated to.

Prodigal Bikes have supplied over 180 bikes so far to school teachers and pupils in northern Malawi who previously had to walk long distances daily to get to and from the remote schools they attend. The bikes have made a massive difference to the quality and quantity of education delivered but now they need a hand repairing them.

I will be working at the Bandawe School for the Deaf showing the older children how to maintain and repair these bicycles. Teaching deaf teenagers these skills enhances their self-reliance and enables them to build their own independent futures by becoming self-employed bike mechanics. This in turn provides them with critical income potential in Malawi, one of the poorest countries on earth. (We also mend kiddies' bikes and wheelchairs...).

I will be minimising my trip costs - getting as many vaccinations as possible on the NHS, sitting at the back of Ethiopian airways economy, staying in a tent and eating local delicacies such Lake Malawi fly patties (weird taste – rather like gritty anchovies). Any level of support you could give would be really very much appreciated - No amount is too small… but please do not feel obliged in anyway. Any left over funds will automatically donated to Prodigal Bikes.

Many thanks indeed.

Peter