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Our BIG IDEA is to help save the lives of children living in remote areas of Uganda by providing bicycles to community health workers. This will get these children the urgent care they need if they fall ill with malaria, pneumonia or diarrhoea - all killers in under five year olds.
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
There are over 200 community health workers in Iyolwa, Uganda. Each is trained to teach the community about sanitation, to show them how to protect themselves from disease-carrying mosquitoes and to diagnose and treat common but dangerous illnesses. With no other means of transport, they walk for miles every day to visit just 1-2 households, bringing urgent health care to those with the greatest need - young children who are particularly vulnerable to life-threatening diseases.
Solution
If they had a bicycle, the community health workers would be able to visit many more households a day and carry out visits to help prevent as well as treat diseases among young children. This would not only save the lives of those who are sick, but would give them opportunities to educate families on how to prevent them from getting sick in the first place, which is always preferable. It would also make the job less arduous for the community health workers themselves.