Thembi

Thembi is a 24-year-old member of the National Youth Council of Malawi. She is a founder of the National Girls Network, an organization she chaired until earlier this year. Thembi holds a certificate in mass communication from Grefa Communication and a certificate in investigative journalism from the World Bank. When not advocating for the rights of women and girls, she enjoys reading and swimming. She is representing the Guttmacher Institute’s Protecting the Next Generation Project at the conference.

Outreach by Bicycle

Thembi is from Malawi. She is representing the Guttmacher Institute's Protecting the Next Generation Project at the conference.

This session was presented by CAP AIDS, a Canada-based organization, which provides small grants to organizations working with communities in Africa. The presentation addressed how effective bikes are in services delivery in African communities. In my country, Malawi, transport is really a big problem and people spend more time walking then providing services. The distances that community health workers have to travel are very long. This makes their jobs ineffective in many communities. However, with the donation of 15 bicycles from CAP AIDS, the service delivery has been improved. For instance, one peer educator with a bike reaches about 40 young people in a week and 200 in a month. This really has a great impact on young people in getting information on sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. A lot of them have been transformed.