News Summary:
- Corporate supporters in Zambia to experience frontline driver challenges and rural access to healthcare initiatives
- Emotional community stories highlight real-world impact, including a child saved from severe malaria using a bicycle ambulance just days prior to the visit
- Visitors see professional driver training in action at the Industrial Training Centre in Lusaka
Last week (17 – 21 May) saw Transaid host a group of nine corporate supporters from the transport and logistics sector on a self-funded, four-day trip to visit its access to healthcare and professional driver training projects in Zambia.
The group travelled more than 1,200 km by road within the country, experiencing the challenging conditions HGV and PSV drivers face daily. They also joined local Ministry of Health teams to visit two locations in Central Province, among the more than 150 rural communities in Zambia to receive a bicycle ambulance from Transaid since 2010, helping to improve access to essential healthcare, particularly for maternal health and malaria.
One mother told the group how the bicycle ambulance had saved the life of her daughter just a week before – with a volunteer emergency transport rider from the community pedalling her and her daughter to the nearest healthcare facility after her child began convulsing, with suspected severe malaria.
Andrew French, B2B Sales Director at Michelin, said: “It was a privilege to be welcomed into these remote communities and to see how the bicycle ambulances have transformed access to healthcare. The stories we heard were deeply touching; I’ve returned home more committed than ever before to support Transaid’s life-saving work.”
On the final day of the visit the group spent time at the Industrial Training Centre (ITC) in Lusaka, home to Transaid’s largest professional driving programme, where they met the ITC management team, trainers, and saw driver training underway.
Transaid has partnered with the ITC for more than 20 years to deliver professional driver training. As the country’s only public commercial driver training centre, the ITC provides a range of accredited training courses, including HGV, PSV, forklift, and motorcycle training.
Michael Bycroft, Managing Director of Asset Alliance Group, explained: “Driving a truck, bus or coach is a skilled job at the best of times, but the road conditions in Zambia show just how demanding it can be. Seeing it first-hand really brings home the scale of the challenges professional drivers face and reinforce why we came on board as a Transaid corporate partner in 2024.”
Transaid hosted senior representatives on the visit from Asset Alliance Group, Brigade Electronics, Garnett Keeler PR, GXO, Hankook, Iron Mountain, Michelin, Microlise, and the Road Haulage Association.
For more information and to find out how you can support Transaid, please visit www.transaid.org.
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Note to Editor:
About Transaid
Transaid transforms lives through safe, available, and sustainable transport. Founded by Save the Children, The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), and its Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, the international development organisation works with communities, partners, and governments to solve transport challenges throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
Transaid works in two core areas, road safety and access to health, to solve two of the biggest transport challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. Transaid’s road safety work focuses on influencing safe driver behaviour with long term programmes in Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, responding to local needs for improved training for drivers and riders of trucks, buses, motorcycles and forklift trucks. On the access to health side, Transaid is working with local partners and communities to strengthen access to health services, primarily in rural areas. They are also working to strengthen health supply chains in collaboration with local partners and governments.
Transaid enjoys strong backing from the transport and logistics industry and the active involvement of its patron, HRH The Princess Royal.
For further press information:
Maddy Matheson at Transaid: +44 (0)20 7387 8136 / maddy@transaid.org
Natalie Ganshert or James Keeler at Garnett Keeler PR: +44 (0)20 8647 4467, or by email to natalie.ganshert@garnettkeeler.com / james.keeler@garnettkeeler.com
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