The “Last Mile” in international development terms, is the last stretch needed to reach often isolated communities. All too often it involves getting to villages without paved roads, little access to communication and poor infrastructure.
In Sub Saharan Africa 80% of goods are transported by road, yet about only half the roads are actually paved. The rural areas bear the brunt of being under served with road maintenance inadequate, and vehicle overloading causing road surfaces to prematurely degrade.
But the Biscid team does not give up in the face of such challenges.
In Zimbabwe the road network is in a dire state, with a recent delivery of 239km taking no less than eleven hours. That’s a gruelling 22km per hour through thick sand, rocky outcrops and blinding dust.
The truck team was visibly shaken when they finally got back, but their smiles of victory lit up the room – victorious at reaching some of the poorest of poor in a country facing the ravages of extreme hunger.
A rural school nutrition delivery became impossible by ‘roads’ (more like tracks) made impassable by torrential rainfall. After being pulled out of the mud and knowing how desperately hungry the school children were for life saving nutrition, the team went back to the old fashioned, tried and tested donkey cart mode of transport. Old school technology definitely works!
In Mozambique a truck load of food aid made it to the northern town of Pemba. But with this being a dangerous, high conflict area on top of a highly damaged road network, the Church members made a different plan. Scores of volunteers offloaded the product and reloaded on to a small boat. There was great excitement when it finally reached the final destination, with children tearing open the packets of dried porridge and eating it as it was handed over.
The Biscid team knows that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going!”
