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Motorcyclists have a tough, biker image. But
they also provide the backing, in money and
support, for an unusually successful overseas
development enterprise, Riders for Health.
Motorcycles are ideal for getting about in rural
Africa; but when aid agencies sent them there, they
usually broke down or crashed. Riders for Health
has changed that. It has devised a system, operated
by Africans, that can keep the bikes on the road.
Ghana’s, Lesotho’s and Zimbabwe’s health workers
can get regularly into the villages. It makes a big
difference to rural morale as well as the health of
the nations.
It all happened by chance. American motorcycle
racer Randy Mamola wanted to give some money away;
and, since he loves children, embarked with his
manager Andrea Coleman on raising cash for the Save
the Children Fund. In 1988 SCF suggested he went to
see what happened to the money. So he travelled to
Somalia with Barry Coleman, a motorcycle enthusiast
and former Guardian journalist who had campaigned
for safer motorcycle racing.
They found a lot of broken-down motorcycles,
some of which needed only a clean air filter or a
tighter chain to get them back on the road. Back in
Britain, SCF said they were giving up on
motorcycles because they were completely useless. A
World Health Organisation official, however, said
that WHO couldn’t complete its immunisation
programme in Africa without motorcycles.
Barry Coleman’s next journey was to The Gambia
where the Ministry of Health said it had 80
motorcycles. In the western region he found none,
in the central the remains of one. But, in the
east, 12 were still up and running even though they
were city bikes unsuitable for rural Africa. The
reason was that Ali Ceesay, the health director’s
driver, was working on the community nurses’ bikes
when they attended meetings. So motorcycles don’t
need to break down in Africa. They need to be well
managed. Avoiding breakdowns is vital, because
recovery and repair are simply too expensive.
Randy Mamola and Andrea Coleman continue raising
money and have brought in other leading racers
including the Australian world 500cc champion
Michael Doohan and the Italian Max Biaggi. Riders
for Health has been independent from the Save the
Children Fund since 1996.
Barry Coleman first tested his ideas in Uganda
and then, in 1991, started a programme from scratch
for the ministry of health in Lesotho. The idea
was, first, to train trainers who would teach
people how to ride properly and look after their
machines; second, to train a manager who would see
that machines got serviced when necessary. For
this, Barry found an outstanding candidate, an
environmental health assistant called Mohale
Moshoeshoe, now Riders for Health’s director for
Southern Africa. In the seven years since, none of
the health ministry bikes in Lesotho has broken
down.
Barry sees this as specially important for
African morale. Every breakdown suggests to
Africans that they are not much good with motor
vehicles. To run a breakdown-free service is to
show this isn’t true. He insists that Africans do
the managing, take the decisions and get the
credit. Any Europeans are simply advisers.
After Lesotho, came Ghana where the health
ministry had 600 motorcycles as against Lesotho’s
47. Once again, Riders for Health assembled a body
of local people who could be enthused about
motorcycles. Barry Coleman sees this as a better
way of effecting change than bending the ears of
top officials with other things to think about.
Ghana raised two new considerations. First, a
health ministry’s job is to promote health, not run
motorcycles, which would be better done by a
separate organisation. Second, what happens when
the motorcycles need replacing? The aid agencies
which provided them in the first place are
unpredictable. They may have other uses for their
money when a second lot is needed.
Riders for Health addressed both these points
when, with help from British aid, it set up in
April 1998 a nationwide organisation in Zimbabwe
headed by a local man Alfred Gonga to run 55
motorcycles given by Denmark. The maintenance
technicians will earn some of their pay from
private business. The system will allow expansion
to include thousands of machines.
Zimbabwe’s Central Mechanical Equipment
Department has a system of charging for the use of
vehicles but struggles with the cost of constantly
repairing them. RfH took up the idea of charging so
much per kilometre, as a way of financing
replacements. Its zero-breakdown approach
eliminates the expense of repairs through
preventive maintenance. RfH uses a computer
programme to monitor costs. It is also testing a
versatile sidecar designed by a Borehamwood man,
Mike Norman, which can be used to generate
electricity and pump water as well as take people
to hospital.
RfH’s senior field support officer, Mike Gatton,
has useful previous experience in contract hire.
Back in 1991, he rode the length of Africa to join
the Lesotho scheme.
The Zimbabwe operation includes four-wheeled
vehicles. Barry Coleman believes that, like
motorcycles, these do not have to break down.
Four-wheeled vehicles, along with 800
motorcycles, figure in a WHO scheme for eradicating
polio from Nigeria. RfH is now advising WHO on how
they can best be run.
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