Standing off to the side just after sunrise, I watched 14-year-old Sphiwe sweep the yard and finish her chores before school.  

That morning, our team had traveled to a rural community in Malawi to document her story as she prepared to receive a Buffalo Bicycle from World Bicycle Relief – a bicycle that would shorten the 9 km journey she walked to school each day. 

I thought about how, back home, my own three daughters would still be asleep – not already hours into their day. 

Nearby, Sphiwe’s mother, Mercy, watched too. And I found myself drawn to hear her story just as much as her daughter’s.

I knew Mercy understood things her daughter couldn’t yet fully explain: the pressure of trying to hold a family together, the sacrifices behind every school day, the fear of opportunities slipping away, and the hope that somehow life could still look different for your children.

Mothers carry the fuller picture. And it’s a perspective we don’t always have the opportunity to hear.

Mercy told me, through tears, about raising six children on her own after her husband left. She spoke about the pain of watching her older daughters leave school early and become pregnant. About the days her family goes hungry when she can’t find work.

“I struggle a lot, raising these kids,” she said.

And while our lives are very different, I recognized something familiar in her words. That constant weight mothers carry. The feeling that no matter how hard things are, you keep searching for ways to create a better future for your children.

Later that day, I watched Mercy dancing with Sphiwe as she received her bicycle. Laughing. Celebrating something that, on the surface, seemed so simple.

But I knew it wasn’t simple at all.

That bicycle meant Sphiwe could get to school on time and stay focused on her education. It meant possibility. 

And for Mercy, it represented something larger: the chance to finally change the course of her family’s future.

– Supriya Doshi, content manager, World Bicycle Relief