There is no denial that the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations (UN) and many other non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as various parastatals have engaged in endless struggles to provide health care for mothers and children across less privileged communities in Africa.
Interestingly, the more these health organisations make efforts, the less it seems they are doing greatly in reducing maternal and child mortality, thus, the need for ‘Riders for Health’.
According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports in 2014, Nigeria loses about 2, 300 of her under‐five year old children per day, which is approximately 839,500 children in a year.
The same report has it that 145 pregnant women reportedly die either at child birth or after child birth per day. And this amounts to 52, 925 women per year.
Given this statistics, Nigeria ‐ like many other African countries – ranks high as one of the countries with large contribution to the under‐five and maternal mortality rates in the world.
Worthy of mention here is the fact that many of these deaths could be prevented if aid gets to those who need them, regardless of their locations – rural or urban settlement.
It is largely true that the coverage and quality of health care service delivered to communities that are at the outskirts or in far rural areas has continued to fail both women and children in Nigeria. Thus, the need to introduce a project called: ‘Riders for Health’.
‘Riders for Health’ is an international social enterprise that strives to manage and maintain vehicles for health‐focused partners in sub‐Saharan Africa with the view of delivering health care services to communities far from cities.
The expertise to be put in place by this project in transport management will enable health workers deliver vital health care to rural communities on a reliable and cost‐effective basis.
The need for Riders for health became pertinent considering the challenges faced by health care givers in reaching communities that are far removed from urban settlements.
What this means is that, not only that those members of communities that are far from cities often struggle in vain to get health care, even health care workers likewise struggle in a bid to save affected Riders for Health employs the use of every form of motor‐vehicles to deliver health care facilities as well as move health care givers to concerned communities.
Among the motor‐vehicles that would be employed by this project include motorcycles, ambulances and other four‐wheel vehicles used in the delivery of health care in seven countries across Africa.
These countries include Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and The Gambia.
The project is in collaboration with ministries of health, international and African NGOs, private‐sector organisations, local community‐based organisations and religious groups, to improve access to health care,
Furthermore, it is important to note here that the project has the capacity to take care of an estimated 14 million people across the seven African countries mentioned above.
For example, one single motor‐vehicle plus one rider has the capacity to cover 56.7 kilometers and beyond within a month covering a total of 5.1 million people.
At the core of this community‐focused project is both training and preventive vehicle maintenance. The essence for running reliable vehicle fleets cannot be separated from the need to ensure that the chain in health care delivery is never broken by failing vehicles thereby increasing health workers’
The same way, prevention is better than cure in human health, so is maintenance better than repair for automobiles, hence the need for constant maintenance, which is also cheaper to keep a vehicle running efficiently over time than to repair it when it breaks down completely.
The programmes have been designed to provide training and employment opportunities to build local a project focusing on human health, the service of highly skilled technicians becomes vital to regularly travel to service vehicles in the communities in which health workers serve.
In addition to training health workers to drive safely in the difficult terrain, there would also be training for them on how to carry out daily checks on their vehicles.
It worthy of note to mention that majority of the population of sub‐Saharan Africans live in rural areas where the best roads are little more than dirt tracks.
Public transport is infrequent and delivering health care on foot or by bicycle between sparse villages is an exhausting and ineffective task.
Simply put, without reliable transportation system, the millions of pounds invested in vaccines, drugs, bed‐nets, condoms and to train health professionals every year will be wasted because they will fail to get to where they are needed on time.
There is therefore every reason for this project to achieve the set goal in order to have a safe and healthy world.
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