Riders in Spain
Spain: Motos Solidarias
Motorcycles saving lives
30,000 children under the age of five die every day across the developing world from preventable or treatable diseases including measles, diarrhoea and malaria. Professional public health workers in Africa have the skills to turn this situation around, but are often prevented from reaching rural villages because of the vast distances and harsh terrain.
Riders for Health works to ensure that African health workers have the reliable transportation they need to reach people with the 21st century health services they so desperately need.
One such health worker is Manyo Gibba. Based in the village of Medina Serign Mass, about half a day’s journey from the capital of the Gambia, Banjul, she cares for nearly 20,000 people in 14 villages. For the last four years, her tough job has been made easier by a simple motorcycle, managed by Riders for Health.
“Before I had a motorcycle, I had to walk or hire a donkey cart to visit my villages,” says Manyo. “Many of the communities would not see me for a month or more. But now I can visit them at any time of the day or night, and they see me at least once a week.”
Working in five African countries, Riders currently manages over 1200 vehicles and keeps health and community workers from a variety of organisations ‘on the road’, from ministries of health to small community organisations. Our programmes, which are run entirely by African nationals, provide an infrastructure for maintaining vehicles regularly so that they never breakdown, despite the hostile terrains.
The result is that over 10.8 million people are now receiving regular healthcare – sometimes for the first time in their lives. Our mission is to ensure that reliable transport is available for the complete delivery of health services throughout Africa by 2015.
Our volunteers
None of Riders’ work would be possible without the support of our generous volunteers, who form the backbone of our fundraising activities. Many of supporters are out at motorcycle events across the globe, in all weathers, raising money for Riders and increasing awareness of our work.
Riders for Health is particularly lucky to have a dedicated team of volunteers at Motos Solidarias, Riders’ Spanish branch, who are present at MotoGP events throughout the year at Valencia, Jerez and Catalunya, raising over € 75,000.
Día de los Campeones
4,000 MotoGP fans finish the season in style each year, as well as supporting the official charity of MotoGP, at Riders for Health's Day of Champions at the European Grand Prix at Valencia.
Day of Champions in Valencia gets more popular each year and includes a visit to the pit-lane, a stunt show and an auction of MotoGP memorabilia. Fans also get the chance to see some of their favourite MotoGP stars on stage, as the riders give up their time to take part in the event.
The money raised this year will help Riders to increase the number of people it reaches when we launch our new programmes in Lesotho and Mozambique.
How your support helps
By supporting Riders you will help to ensure that health workers in Africa reach millions of people in rural communities with the healthcare that the developed world takes for granted.
Every gift to Riders, no matter how small, makes a big difference:
€ 5 Could buy an air filter for a Honda XL125.
€ 25 Could help to train one health worker in essential bike maintenance.
€ 70 Could help provide replacement parts and servicing for a year.
€ 85 Could keep a health worker on the road for one month.
€ 360 Could provide a community health worker with the protective clothing they need to make sure that they are safe.
€ 500 Could buy tools for an outreach technician so they can provide regular maintenance to the health workers' vehicles.
Donate
You really can help to transform the lives of thousands of women, men and children in some of Africa's most vulnerable communities. Please click here to make a donation, and help people in Africa to look forward to a healthier future.
Get involved
If you would like to join our network of volunteers, and help Riders to raise funds and awareness in Spain, please contact rfh@riders.org