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Riders…for health
by Health PatioIt’s that time of year– when New Year’s Resolutions unfortunately start to tarnish in their appeal. But I have an inspiring report on a serious way to get moving while helping yourself get/stay healthy like you may have resolved to do a few weeks ago at the beginning of January AND helping others at the same time.
If we all lived like this, maybe we could even eliminate entropy!
This humanitarian project is like the original Iditarod Trail race to deliver essential medicine to a remote locale. But instead of being cold, this new project races in the heat of the continent of Africa. Barry Coleman and Andrea Coleman, a British husband-and-wife team, “saddled up” motorbikes, which are perfectly suited for travel in the harsh African landscape, where roads are often practically impassable or nonexistent. In a few years, the Riders for Health project took on larger tasks to meet the medical needs of rural Africa.
What does the project say about itself? “We are working to make sure all health workers in Africa have access to reliable transportation so they can reach the most isolated and vulnerable people with regular and predictable health care.”
What did the Times (UK) say about Riders for Health? YouTube features this story showing some of the workers, riders and clients. Riders for Health trains doctors, nurses and health workers to ride motorbikes safely and has developed a system for self-sufficiency within each locally-run program module. The ‘preventative maintenance’ system maintains the bikes in Africa’s harsh environment.
Fast facts about Riders for Health
* Health care can be delivered to five times more people by motorcycle than on foot.
* A 21 per cent decline in malaria deaths has been measured in areas where all health workers are mobile. Riders prevent the motorcycles from ever breaking down. So communities are reached, day in day out, with bed nets and curative medicine.
* People are almost certain to die in rural Africa if they are seriously ill and live more than 8 miles from a hospital or clinic because of lack of transport
* Motorcycles and ambulances managed by Riders increase a vehicle’s life span by 300 per cent in the harsh conditions of Africa.
* Reliable access to health care means more people are reached per £1 and fewer people die of easily preventable and curable disease.
* Men, women and children in remote rural communities will see a health worker every week if the health worker has a motorbike. That means health workers can visit many more patients, hold mobile clinics in far flung villages and crucially, offer preventative treatment
