Zamcycle 20

Dear Supporter,

The weather is improving and the sun, occasionally, shining and it is time to get back out on the bike. On Sunday 5th June 2022 I am planning a 200K cycle over the Cork and Kerry mountains and I am again looking for your support for aid projects in Zambia. Last year we raised €46,000 thanks to tremendous support from many of you.

This is the 20th year of the cycle and over the past 19 years we have raised €642,762. When I started this cycle in 2003 it was to raise money for 2 schools, CINDI in Ndola and Kondwe in Lusaka and a hospice, Cicetekelo, in Ndola. At the time Zambia was in the middle of a very severe AIDS epidemic. The schools were started to help children orphaned by AIDS through education and to support the extended families that looked after the children through nutritional and self help projects. Thankfully, through the arrival of retroviral medications, AIDS is not as severe an epidemic as it was. However, poverty remains a severe problem in Zambia and education is seen as the main way out of it. I am glad to be able to say that both schools are doing well and have expanded from primary to both primary and secondary education and at this stage are supporting a small number of young adults in third level education. There is also a big focus in getting the young people enrolled in training programs after leaving school with the hope of developing a trade that will support them.

Cicetekelo, was a hospice opened for patients dying of AIDS and did absolutely amazing work. Due to lack of funding the inpatient facility has closed. However, it continues to do community work as well as support an orphanage and sheltered accommodation for older people without support in Ndola.

The main focus of my cycle is to support these 3 projects. However, over the past 18 months, 2 friends, Brian Conroy and John Sheehan, who worked with me in Zambia in 1982 to 1984, and I have set up a charitable trust, CPS Trust Ireland, with the hope of expanding the support we can give. We have given financial support to a rural School, Nsobe, which has 400 pupils in primary and secondary level, and has opened accommodation for vulnerable girls. We are also supporting the building of a new school in Mazabouka in the Southern Province. This year we are supporting transport of medical equipment that is no longer needed by the HSE to hospitals in Zambia.

If you have supported us in the past I thank you most sincerely and if you can support us this year I would be most grateful. We have few overheads and the money we raise goes directly to the projects in Zambia.

This year on Sunday, 5th June, our route takes us from Killorglin cross country to Bantry then over a few hills, Caha Pass, Molls Gap and Ballagh Beama, and through Glencar back to Killorglin. Hopefully all in sunshine and little wind. A distance of about 200 Km. This year I get the free travel pass but isn't the bicycle the same thing.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Prendiville