Motorcycles & Bicycles in Development
/ Aid / Relief & Volunteer Efforts
Motorcycles & Bicycles in Development
/ Aid / Relief & Volunteer Efforts
Riders for Health
A nonprofit organization using motorcycles and the training of local
motorbike riders to improve delivery systems for healthcare in Africa.
You can check out a short film on the site narrated by Ewan McGregor
giving an insight into the work of Riders for Health.
Motorcycle Outreach
A nonprofit introduces and supports effective healthcare delivery - by
motorcycle - in remote areas of developing countries. Motorcycle
Outreach works closely with the UK Charity Riders for Health (RfH),
which supports primary health delivery in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) in
eastern Indonesia. These two organizations provide motorcycles for
health workers, specifically midwives and nurses working in public
health centres that are responsible for large areas but which have no
means of transport to cover these areas. Health care workers are trained
on how to ride and on basic maintenance, and the use of motorcycles is
monitored by Health for All and others such as community leaders, the
Ministry for Health in sub-district levels, NGOs and the public.
Motorcycle Outreach helps local people to manage and control the
roadworthiness of the motorcycle fleet, to ensure that a Zero Breakdown
principle is maintained. The health workers responsible for the
motorcycles fill in a logbook and the riders themselves are regularly
evaluated. Read
more about their activities.
Ted Simon Foundation
A new foundation named for Ted Simon, a famous international motorcycle
traveler. It will "encourage and assist travellers in making an extra
effort to develop their observations and insights into something of
value for the rest of the world to share, whatever their medium of
expression might be... We believe that individuals of good will, moving
among foreign cultures and making themselves vulnerable to the beliefs
and customs of strangers, have great importance in promoting world
understanding, and even more so when they can distill the essence of
their experiences into a form that can be absorbed by many."
Bicycling
'Info Ladies' bring Internet to remote Bangladesh villages
Dozens of Bangladeshi "Info Ladies" ride bicycles into remote
Bangladeshi villages with laptops and Internet connections, helping tens
of thousands of people — especially women — get everything from
government services to chats with distant loved ones. It's a vital
service in a country where only 5 million of 152 million people have
Internet access. The Info Ladies project, created in 2008 by local
development group D.Net and other community organizations, is modeled
after a program that helped make cellphones widespread in Bangladesh. It
intends to enlist thousands more workers in the next few years with
startup funds from the South Asian country's central bank and
expatriates working around the world. D.Net recruits the women and
trains them for three months to use a computer, the Internet, a printer
and a camera. It arranges bank loans for the women to buy bicycles and
equipment.
The Gender Desk - Rwanda
The Gender Desk was launched in May 2005 at the Rwandan National Police
Headquarters under the framework of the joint UNIFEM-UNDP Project,
"Enhancing Protection from Gender-based Violence." The Gender Desk
includes an interview room to enable women to speak in confidence with a
trained officer; a nationwide toll-free hotline service for reporting
gender-based violence; and a UNIFEM-UNDP-funded adviser. UNIFEM
facilitated quick reporting and response to cases of violence and
increased awareness among the police and community of gender-based
violence as a human rights issue. Investigating officers have been
trained in victim empowerment, psychosocial support and victim/survivor
protection. Motorcycles, provided by UNIFEM-UNDP, enable them to respond
rapidly.
Members of the Global Aids Interfaith Alliance, or GAIA, visited Blantyre, Malawi in June 2003. "We spent time with the women who are part of the GAIA program to strengthen women, thanks to a grant from the Gates Foundation. Originally referred to as women's empowerment, the program is now referred to in terms of strengthening the family, as gender issues are a strong force in this culture. Transportation is an enormous issue for our local trainees. Their areas are large, and flooding in the rainy season makes many villages inaccessible and many roads impassable. One of our decisions was to make small motorcycles available to them. We also provided them with cell phones. Both have been an enormous help as they go about their work." Read the entire story
Motorcycles and horses provide key ways to help rural people in Lesotho, a tiny country landlocked within South Africa about the size of Maryland. 25% of its adults are HIV-positive. Pony riders to transport blood tests, drugs, and supplies between remote mountain health clinics and better-equipped hospitals at sea level. When roads are navigable by two wheels, motorcycle riders join the journey to further speed the process of rushing blood to the lab or medication to those sick with HIV. USAID and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation support this effort.
eRanger: Mobile Multimedia Classroom
The Digital Education Enhancement Project (DEEP) is a research and development programme investigating the use of information and communications technology (ICT) for teaching and learning. It works in schools serving disadvantaged communities in different parts of the world. Partners: Open University, UK, Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) & University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape. In April 2007, the DEEP team began testing a prototype motorbike-based unit to transport ICT equipment, support and training to a rural school in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Funders: Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE), The Open University Alumni & Ranger Production Company. The aims of the prototype are:
Two models of equipment are being tested, including a 'solo' unit for efficient on and off-road transport of equipment for group work sessions, and a sidecar-based education unit for larger school-based events. The provision within the units comprise:
During the prototyping phase, the eRider is an ŒEducation Development Officer from the ECDoE, who is undertaking this work as part of their role in developing eLearning in the East London district of the Eastern Cape. The role of the 'eRider' is:
If you have related information or examples, please contact me.
Are you an individual, or part of a group, that wants to travel and do good (transire benefaciendo)? You have several options for helping either domestically (in your own country), or abroad (in another country), but note that it will take planning before your trip, as well as a lot of coordination in the weeks and days leading up to your on-the-road activities. This web page, transire benefaciendo, will help you coordinate such an efort. See in particular the section on Volunteering On Your Own Abroad. Also see this page on Finding Community Service and Volunteering for Groups, as well as the links at the bottom of that page.
Of course, everyone knows Expat
Aid Workers love motorcycles.
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