Aug
24
The Bambulance Project is dedicated to improving health transport in rural Kenya by providing safe, affordable medical transportation in the form of a bicycle-pulled stretcher made primarily from strong bamboo. Locally manufactured and distributed, the project also seeks to develop skills and provide economic opportunities within the communities it serves.
Bikes aren’t the only form of attachment for the Bambulance,” she says.
“We’ll adapt it to the most appropriate form of transportation” in a given location and set of needs. “At the end of the day, the bike so far seems fastest in the areas we’ve worked, particularly Kenya. But it can be pulled by a person, bike, donkey. We’ve even considered oxen, but they’re very large, not so fast.”
“And one thing you do have to think about when setting up a Bambulance program” to get medical patients to a place of treatment as quickly as possible “is the availability of the transport mode. For example, if it’s an animal you expect to pull the Bambulance, you’re going to need a ready supply of healthy animals for when the time comes.”
It takes only a minute of thought to consider some developed-world settings in which a Bambulance might actually trump a more sophisticated form of fast transport for, say, an injury or sudden-illness situation. For example, how about a university campus? Could it be quicker for students and faculty members to grab the lightweight bamboo stretcher, attach it to a bike and wheel a sick associate to the campus infirmary?
Bikes aren’t the only form of attachment for the Bambulance,” she says.
“We’ll adapt it to the most appropriate form of transportation” in a given location and set of needs. “At the end of the day, the bike so far seems fastest in the areas we’ve worked, particularly Kenya. But it can be pulled by a person, bike, donkey. We’ve even considered oxen, but they’re very large, not so fast.”
“And one thing you do have to think about when setting up a Bambulance program” to get medical patients to a place of treatment as quickly as possible “is the availability of the transport mode. For example, if it’s an animal you expect to pull the Bambulance, you’re going to need a ready supply of healthy animals for when the time comes.”
It takes only a minute of thought to consider some developed-world settings in which a Bambulance might actually trump a more sophisticated form of fast transport for, say, an injury or sudden-illness situation. For example, how about a university campus? Could it be quicker for students and faculty members to grab the lightweight bamboo stretcher, attach it to a bike and wheel a sick associate to the campus infirmary?
![[mini] Rafa Campoamor](http://24.media.tumblr.com/avatar_a91e70f19304_30.png){kind=avatar}
