Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127680
'R A C Riders for Health's Day of Champions OAO' A E (Left) Randy Mamola and Kevin Schwantz have visited Lesotho, seeing first hand the results of their work for Riders for Health. (Right) The program uses Kawasaki KV-175s. (Below ยท left to right) Barry Coleman, Mahali Hlasa and Randy Mamola discuss Riders for Heahh during the Dayof Champions, held prior to the British Grand Prix at DonlngtonPark. By Bruce Scholten DONINGTON PARK, ENGLAND, JULY 21 n more ways th an one, th is year's "Riders for Health" benefit showed motorcycli sts are on the right track. "We ' re so very pleased that Donington Park made 'Day of Champions' a part of the Brit ish Grand Prix," Andrea Coleman, who along with husband Barr y Col eman, ex-GP star and current Rob ert s team tester Randy Mamola, innumerable volunteers, and 5500 appreciative race fans, netted about $60,000 for health programs in the poorest parts of Africa . "It he lped save on exp ens es, more riders wer e able to take part, and I think it's good for them, too." All the top stars pu t their career worries on the back burner to raise cash for something important. "We hope to have more events like this next year," Mamala said . An ything that rais ed cash wa s fair game : tours of the track with bus drivers Micha el Doohan and Mamola, helping Kevin Schwantz the Barber shave the pate of hirsute IRTA pit boss, piles of racing memorabilia - and even a couple of Chippendale dancers. The auctioneer, BBC disk jockey Johnny Walker, helped ensure Schwantz's eventual win in the Sunday afternoo n British GP after a man bid $1500 for a helmet - on condition that Schwantz wore it to church at 7:00 a.m, Schwantz turned up at church the next morning, and then went out and won his fourth British GP. Exactly what is "Riders for Heoilth"? "I couldn't do my work without it," said Mahali Hlasa, who graduated from two years of training in the National Health Institute of Lesotho, only to find, "my 10 co-workers and I wasted a lot of our time waiting to use the clinic's two Toyotas. By the time I drove to an outlying village, I had barely an hour with my patients before returning the vehicle - because someone else needed it." Now in ch arge of rider training, Mahali say s: "At fir st I d idn 't like motorcycles at all , but I changed my attitude totally." . When she first rode into her village, her family mistook her for aman , "They thought a woman could neve r ride a motorbike," said Hlasa. The high, mountainous kingdom of Lesotho was just too tough for the Boer or Zulu people, of su rr ounding South Africa , to conquer. The 5500-foot high capital of Maseru is guarded by 12,000foot peaks . That safegu ard s inde penden ce, bu t hinders health care. Some villages are simply inaccessible by truck. Enter "Riders for Health." Since fourwheel d rives are costly and sometimes impract ical, some African health plans had considered ponies or do nkeys for hard-to-reach villages. Wrong. Regul ar visits are crucial to credibility, and these cute four-hoo f critters can be slow and unreliable. Buses are sporadic, and waiting for them subjects female workers to harassment and even kidna p. So, several aid agencies decided, intuitively, that motorcycles were the answer. Only partly right. Barry Coleman sa ys the disillusion caused when the World Bank or UNESCO have dumped thousands of motorcycles on countries without the training and spare parts to ride and maintain them - is inestimable. "Within six weeks the bikes were junk and a lot of people got hurt," Coleman said. "M y God! We often argue against rich nations shipping bikes to an unsuspecting country. Riders for Health is a difficult concept to grasp. People say we buy motorcycles and vaccinate kids, but buying bikes is the last thing on our list. Our purpose is to help Africans manage their own hea lth care. It just so happens that motorcycles can be the best tools to deliver it." The man in charge of maintaining those tools, Mohale Mashoeshoe, says: "Our bikes in Lesotho are in better shape than most in England." He preaches daily in sp ections of chains, spokes, etc., along with regular servicing. "We have had some incredible successes," Mashoeshoe said . "One hospital in Mafetung, 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Maseru (the capital of Lesotho) was so crowded with tuberculosis patients that many slept on the outside veranda." The patients needed injec tions for 60 days, followed by multiple therapies. Administering this in daily