Phalambe District, Malawi … In the far southeast corner of Malawi is the district known as Phalambe. It has a population of over 230,000 people and is nearly 95% from the Lomwe tribe. Only 0.5% are Chewa, 0.4% Yao, 0.2 Ngoni, and 0.1 Tumbuka, the other major tribal backgrounds in the country. It is composed of quaint African villages with a district capital at Phalambe. The Mozambique border runs along its eastern flank and famous Mount Mulunji is to its south. It rests snugly in the lower Rift Valley.
In Phalambe maize mills and boreholes (wells) are few and far apart. This is a major problem for the women who must walk great distances each morning for water for cooking and bathing, and difficult distances twice a week to have their maize ground.
With few mechanized vehicles, or even ox carts, the residents of this border district see a bicycle as nearly essential to survival. In fact, a bicycle is so important a girl who has been proposed to for marriage will often ask to see the boy’s bicycle. If he confesses he does not have a bicycle he has almost surely lost his chance to have the girl of his dreams say, “I do.”
On the 40-foot shipping containers being sent to Malawi the Malawi Project is able to include large numbers of donated bicycles.