摩托车挽救生命

Being able to ride along narrow trails and carry out maintenance checks on a motorbike are not talents most health workers in the world need to possess， but for community health nurse Jallow these skills are crucial as he relies on his two-wheeled companion to reach the isolated villages dotting the Combo Central region in The Gambia， West Africa.

His routine motorbike round includes visits to at-risk pregnant women and malnourished children， distributes mosquito bed nets and food supplements and educates locals about life-threatening diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS.

Jallow says all this wouldn"t be possible without Riders for Health （RFH）， a UK-based social enterprise working to transform healthcare delivery across rural Africa and provide outreach health workers with the transport they need.

Millions of lives are lost needlessly every year. It is because， in many cases， the vaccines and medicines required for treatment are available but fail to reach the people in need due to ueliable transport.

That"s what prompted British racing journalist Barry Coleman and his wife Andrea to put RFH together. It all began after Barry visited Somalia in the late 1980s.

"Barry came back and said there are children in rural communities who really need to be reached because they need immunizations； women are dying in childbirth and then 30， 20， 10 miles away in ministry of health car parks there are motorcycles and ambulances that are simply broken because nobody has been trained to repair them， there"s no supply chain of parts， there"s no knowledge of transport maintenance，" remembers Andrea，

"It made us angry， actually， that women and children are dying in rural Africa simply because an old technology like a motorcycle or an ambulance with this internal combustion engine can"t be managed -- well， that"s ridiculous， that is crazy，" she adds

The two life-long motorcycle enthusiasts eventually founded RFH in 1996. The award-winning group， which today has some 300 staff across Africa， raises funds at bike events and auctions as well as from charging the governments， agencies and NGOs it works with a not-for-profit fee for its services.

Their work has enabled outreach health professionals to see nearly six times more people and spend double the time with their patients. They can also hold about 3，500 extra health-education meetings a month across the continent.

Moreover， the group has introduced a motorcycle courier service that speeds up the diagnosis and monitoring of patients suffering from TB or HIV and enables them to start treatment early. In one year， RFH says， mobilized health workers have transported more than 400，000 medical samples and test results between rural health centers and labs.

Andrea says the wellbeing of rural communities changes dramatically once they get regular access to health services.

"We have shown that the maintenance of vehicles is absolutely critical if you are going to be able to solve the health issues of rural Africa，" says Andrea. "And also we"ve shown how transport can be run cost-effectively and how local people really benefit when they are trained to a high standard to be technicians because it provides employment in the communities."

能骑一辆摩托车沿着窄窄的小径行驶和对它进行维修检查，对于世界上的很多卫生工作者来说并非最需要具备的技能，但其对于社区卫生护士贾洛却是至关重要的，因为他要依靠他的两轮达到冈比亚的中部地区的偏远村庄进行救治工作。