Super strong bikes help transform lives and improve healthcare in Ugandan community

Category: (Self-Study) Lifestyle/Entertainment

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Health workers in Uganda and people in the rural communities they serve say they’re enjoying the benefits of having bikes especially designed for rugged terrain.

The Buffalo Bicycles are distributed by a non-profit organization which says they’ve been built to be stronger and simpler than recreational alternatives, to meet the needs of workers traveling long distances in harsh conditions.

Retailing for roughly $200, it is three times more expensive than the cheapest regular bicycle. Many people haven’t heard of it or can’t afford it. It’s promoted by World Bicycle Relief, which says its durability in rough terrain results in fewer trips to the mechanic, also meaning fewer maintenance costs.

The bicycle is also seen as a community asset. Susan Apio, a health worker, is using the new Buffalo bike. In the village where she lives, anyone can show up and ask to use it.

“It has helped me because when I am moving within the community, I don’t take long, even I also don’t take time. It also helps me to cover a number of households within the community and also our facility is far. We used to walk like for one and half hour reaching the facility, the health center, but when they gave us this bicycle, really it has helped me a lot to move to the facility,” explains Apio.

Hamuza Ali, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for World Bicycle Relief, says the organization is aiming to widen the distribution of the bikes into other poor and rural settings, some areas with refugees.

He says, “By solving mobility challenges that are within these areas, we are also aimed at reducing the poverty levels, also equipping the people here with a solution to see that their household incomes are increased. However, we are now penetrating in other regions and you can hear that we have been in Fort Portal, we have been in Kabale, we have also been in West Nile, that is Yumbe, in the refugee settings that is Bidibidi, and Adjumani.”

This article and video were provided by The Associated Press.

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[Susan Apio leaving her house]

[Susan Apio pushing her steel-reinforced bicycle]

[Susan Apio riding her bicycle]

[Susan Apio talking to people in her community]

Susan Apio (interview): “It has helped me because when I am moving within the community I don’t take long, even I also don’t take time. it also helps me to cover a number of households within the community and also our facility is far we used to walk like for 1 and half hour reaching the facility the health centre but when they gave us this bicycle really it has helped me a lot to move to the facility.”

[Lira town in northern Uganda]

[Buffalo bicycles in a warehouse in Lira town]

[A technician assembling a new buffalo bicycle]

Hamuza Ali (interview): “By solving mobility challenges that are within these areas we are also aimed at reducing the poverty levels, also equipping the people here with a solution to see that their household incomes are increased. However, we are now penetrating in other regions and you can hear that we have been in Fort Portal, we have been in Kabale we have also been in west Nile that is Yumbe, in the refugee settings that is Bidibidi, and Adjumani.”

[Hamuza Ali and Lucy Abalo talking about the bicycle at her home]

[Buffalo Bicycle at Lucy Abalo’s home]

[Hamuza Ali and Lucy Abalo talking]

Lucy Abalo (interview): “I have some clients here who go and pick the drugs most especially and that is the most important thing that this bike is doing here in this community. There are people with underlying conditions they pick their ARVs (antiretrovirals) from our facility and I know them, so sometimes I also get busy, but whenever they come they pick their bikes and go and pick their drugs.”

[Lucy Abalo leaving home on her buffalo bicycle]

[Lucy Abalo arriving at another home in her community and talking to women]

[Lucy Abalo with her bike, talking to Barbara Akello]

[A girl passing a baby to Barbara Akello]

Barbara Akello (interview): “When I was pregnant, the date I am going back for antenatal I can inform her that tomorrow when you are going you come and help me and carry me there because I don’t have transport. Help me so that I can reach there very early, but I would come back foot, but she always says I will take you and I will bring you back. And then now days I have the baby already she can come and carry me if I inform her that today I am going to take my baby for immunization, she can come and pick me up I always move with her and coming back home she can also bring us back home.”

[People in the local community]

[Local leader Augustine Okwir checking out the Buffalo Bicycle]

Augustine Okwir (interview): “Their health I think there is now improvement because most of the people, the young ones they were coughing, but because of sensitization she has been using this bicycle they have changed their lives there is good health now not like the other previous times.”

[Motorbike driving through the entrance at the Ober Health Centre IV]

[Health center sign]

[Ambulance at Ober HC IV]

[Patients at Ober HC IV]

[Health center administrator walking past people]

[Patients at Ober HC IV]

Francesca Ayer (interview): “I know they are supporting us with sensitization at community level, they are also supporting us to also identify certain ill health conditions at community level and hence informing us timely and hence enabling us also act upon them timely. Like of recent we have heard of the Mpox outbreak in our country and they are our primary eyes at community level.”

[Lucy Abalo riding her bike]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.