Community Initiative for Self-Reliance (CISER) has donated bicycle ambulances to village and group village heads in Mangochi, Malawi, to help pregnant mothers get to hospital in time.

CISER Executive Director Joseph Makwakwa said that the NGO saw the need to make the donation after seeing how pregnant women in rural areas suffer to access transport to hospital.

‘Apart from Mangochi District Hospital, we only have Monkey Bay Community Hospital and Koche Health Centre but distances to those health facilities from various rural areas in Senior Chief Mponda is 30km to 50km’, MANA Online quoted Makwakwa as saying.

‘Most of these areas cannot be accessed by car and those bicycle ambulances will help bridge that gap’.

Development Diaries understands that CISER is funded by Transport for Transport (T4T), an international NGO based in the Netherlands.

It was learnt that T4T Central Africa Coordinator, Rick Mwenyewe, said that the organisation conducted a survey and noted the gap that required immediate filling.

According to Mwenyewe, the 20 bicycle ambulances cost T4T nearly K9million.

District Community Development Officer (DCDO) for Mangochi, Anthony Zimba, thanked CISER for donating ambulance bicycles.

He said, ‘As Mangochi district council, we are very grateful for the role CISER plays in promoting safe motherhood in the district; this is not the first time the NGO has made such donation’.

Zimba urged the chiefs who have received the bicycle ambulances to take good care of them and use them solely for the intended purpose.

Source: MANA Online

Photo source: MANA Online