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Monday, November 22, 2010

The Bicycle Ambulance

Some of the activistas pausing for a photo after dedicating
our new bicycle ambulance to God's service in Dondo.

Our prayers are that this little cart will save a lot of lives!

If there is anything about the culture of poverty that leaves me perplexed it is the state of health care.  There is a privileged minority that own a car in Mozambique. The rest find that getting to the hospital or clinic for emergency care can be their biggest obstacle to surviving.  Many times I have visited a mud home only to find a patient so sick that crawling on their belly was their mode of transportation. It is common to see them give up hope unless a family member or kind neighbor transports them to the hospital on their back. One memory still plays heavy on my heart.  We had visited the home of a woman in Project Life.  She had been too sick to call for help and her house was off the beaten path.  It was impossible for my car to get near her house. The only means to get her to the hospital was to tie her to a bicycle so she wouldn't fall off. No checking vitals, no IVs started, no oxygen....just an overly snug fit on a metal frame over dirt roads fitted with nasty dips and huge chuck holes.  My EMT days screamed "wrong!" as I watched her disappear down the road swaying back and forth in and out of consciousness.

Out of those difficult moments the idea came to create a bicycle ambulance.  We discovered that other countries in Africa have also introduced this concept and have been successful in not only answering the needs of an incapacitated community but offering a small job for a driver. After hunting down a welder willing to build it and exploring all kinds of stores in Beira for the appropriate materials, today we brought it home!  It is shy a shade but our local seamstress is busy sewing one and we should have it installed before our plane leaves tomorrow.  Earlier today we dedicated it to God's service and are looking forward to the good use it will have in the next few months while I return to the States.  God's timing of its arrival was perfect.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this, it was quite helpful and told a lot

Anonymous said...

Dulce sitio web, yo no hubiera venido a través de su blog antes en las búsquedas! Llevar adelante la obra excepcional!

Anonymous said...

awesome blog, do you have twitter or facebook? i will bookmark this page thanks. lina holzbauer