VOL. 50 ISSUE 48 DECEMBER 3, 2013
P67
(Right) You get to ride
the same bike the health
workers use for their trade
– a Yamaha AG200.
(Left) Riders Experience
Africa allows you to meet
the people and see first
hand Riders for Health
programs in action.
reational riders.
"What's quite funny
is one of the comments
when we were riding with
one of the medical staff
was, 'I can't believe how
conservative he rides,'
" Mamola shared. "Because a lot of us, can ride fast
everywhere… But, we have a lot
of close calls and people do fall
off and when they follow this guy
they're going, 'I can't believe how
conservative and how good he
can ride,' and so on… I said, 'this
guy's never ridden a motorcycle
before. Now we teach him how
RIDERS
FOR HEALTH
to ride a bike and how to maintain
it. When he's 100km away from
any major city, whose going to
pick him up off the floor?' So he
knows he has to ride [conservatively]."
In addition to seeing first hand
what the program does and gain-
If you follow MotoGP,
chances are you've already
heard of Riders for Health as
it is the official charity of the
series. And it was the sport
where the charity was born.
Andrea and Barry Coleman
set out some 20 years ago
with the plans for Riders for
Health based on this belief: "It
is unacceptable that millions
of people die because they do not receive the health
care they need when the means to reach them exists."
You can get all the vaccinations and mosquito nets
you need, but if you don't have the ability to get them to
people that live in rural areas they're basically useless.
ing further appreciation of its
value, payment for the trip itself
benefits Riders for Health. The
price of the trip is roughly $6183
(depending on exchange rate),
$2930 of which pays for the accommodations, meals, the use
of the bike, and paramedic and
(From left to right) One of the
technicians in the Zambia
program, Marvin Kuyumba,
Randy Mamola and the ride
leader Gary Taylor.
Together with Randy Mamola's fundraising efforts in the
Grand Prix paddock, they put
that plan in motion. Now their
plan has grown to an organization with programs in seven
countries across sub-Saharan
Africa.
Riders for Health has developed systems for training
health workers how to ride and maintain their vehicles
(ambulances and motorcycles) and improving access
to health care to over 12 million people. Their aim is to
extend that reach to 25 million people by 2017.
