Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

Magunga's Baby Bikes

last updated May 11, 2012

Overview

Implementation Partner(s): 
Magunga Health Centre
Legal Status: 
Private (not-for-profit)
Year Launched: 
2010
Stage: 
Existing/expansion stage
Income Level of Target Population: 
Bottom 20%

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor
Funders: 
DFID

Scale

Personnel Employed: 
<10
Number of Clients Served: 
5 Baby bikes
Summary: 

The Baby motorbikes are used to transport expectant mothers to health facilities in Magunga village, especially in from areas that are not accessible by road.

Program goals/rationale: 

Having a baby in rural north-western Kenya is usually risky for the expectant mothers; the likelihood of a woman dying in childbirth is extremely high. Across the country, 560 mothers die for every 100,000 children born, and in parts of northwestern Kenya, that figure can double.

Key program components: 

The motorbike ambulance is being used to transport the expectant mother to a health centre. The motorcycles are specially built for the rough tracks around the lakeside villages. It is a 200cc motorcycle with a custom-built, padded side-car in which a patient can lie down, safely strapped in and in an emergency, a nurse or midwife can travel behind the driver.

Baby bikes is also raising awareness on the importance of hospital delivery and has made a big difference in the lives of women and their babies. Most women in the village had not used the hospital before the training and education programme because they were frightened and believed that a hospital was where you went if you were going to die, and that they might force them to have an HIV test.

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