Cycle for Malawi raises hard-earned €25,000

Budding cyclists from TNT Post accompanied by a support car and two drivers have completed a sponsored cycle ride from Barcelona to Rotterdam, raising almost €25,000 for the School Feeding Programmes in Malawi. This is enough to feed 1,000 children attending school for a whole year.

The eight cyclists, five of whom work for TNT and all of whom were sponsored by TNT, set off on the 1,600km journey on 17th May and passed through Paris and Brussels to arrive in Rotterdam in time for the Walk the World event on 1st June. There they were met and welcomed home by Peter Bakker CEO and Bert Koenders, Minister of Development Cooperation, at the foot of the Erasmus Bridge.

“We averaged about 140 km a day,” says Hennie Scheer, Teamcoach TNT Post at a depot in Rotterdam. “It was incredibly hard work and we were in a lot of pain for much of the ride, but the pain was far less than that felt by those people in Malawi who are hungry every day. And that is why we felt compelled to do something for WFP. In Europe we are very fortunate; we have everything we want. So we wanted to do something for others less fortunate than ourselves. The feeling when we had completed the cycle was indescribable – really fantastic.”

The cyclists paid for their own flights to Barcelona and for their own accommodation along the way. They also used their own holiday time to partake in the adventure. “We gained sponsorship from family and friends and also from colleagues who agreed to donate money that they would otherwise have spent going on holiday. We are also grateful to TNT management who donated €5,000, and to those TNT sites we visited on our route who were so happy to see us and who were so generous with their donations,” says Hennie. “Additionally, we ran a lottery which was open to all employees in the Netherlands which gave everyone who purchased a lottery ticket the change to win a fully-paid weekend break to Barcelona, Paris or Brussels. All in all, we have raised close to €25,000.”