Women on the move

"Egaali momaso" - "ahead with the bike" are telling us nurses, traditional birth-attendants, midwives and community-based health-workers in Uganda. Rose Kaneene, a nurse and midwive at a hospital 50 km north of Jinja, the second biggest city in Uganda: "The major problem we face is transport. Transport to monitor patients at home, to have vaccination-outreaches or to hold seminars about hygiene and prevention of diseases in the villages." To face the dilemma, since 1990 the charitable organisation "Jugendhilfe Ostafrika" is sponsoring bikes for social initiatives in East-Africa. Up to now more than 3.500 local type of bikes have been sponsored mainly through private donations in Germany. In East-Africa the bicycle is traditionally the most common means of transport. There is a system of bicycle taxis on minor roads and paths and within cities. The "boda-boda" (local name for the bike-taxis) take passengers on the extra-strong local made carrier or carry heavy loads to the market-place for business. Nurses and midwives carry their passengers "boda-boda"-like to the next hospital, which can be 20 km away. Rose: "What can you do, if someone is sick? People can't afford transport by car. They need their little money for treatment. If there is an emergency-case, you have to reach the patient in time, e.g. a woman delivering. The bicycle is the appropriate means on the narrow paths in the rural area." The experience that motorised transport is not affordable and unsuitable in many rural areas has procuced the idea of subsidising bicycles for the rural poor as they are expensive in retail. Chairwoman of the German-based organisation, Adelheid Schulte-Bocholt: "We subsidise the local type of bicycles, we don't want to import sophisticated technology which results in lack of spare-parts. The western type of bicycle consists of a variety of different parts compared to the indian oder chinese type. The spares of the latter are even similar. We also don't want Africans to receive second-hand goods again." For fixing the CKD (completely knocked down)-bicycles, the partner-organisation in Uganda has got a bicycle-workshop, which is also a training-centre for youths in assembling and maintenance of bicycles. Richard Kisamadu, the coordinator of the project in Uganda: "Governmental and big private donor-agencies smile about our work, but the idea seems to spread. Even the German Technical Cooperation GTZ and other big ones have applied for subsidised bikes here. But I am realistic, it is difficult to avoid the same mistakes in terms of pollution and environmental destrucion you have made in the industrialised countries. I have been in Europe and I have witnessed the aftermath of motorisation. It is affecting the social relations and promotes selfishness in society."