The purpose is to increase access to timely and quality health services by providing both providers and users of health services with an improved transport solution. Some of the challenges we aim to address include:
Rural health centres’ inability to deliver integrated health services directly in the community
Transport challenges leading to pregnant women delivering at home
Unavailability of emergency transport, including for infectious diseases
Reduced access to ante-natal and post-natal care for expecting mothers due to high transport cost
Hambas for Health
Since 2020, Mobility for Africa has tested the Hambas at health facilities in Wedza and Igava, Zimbabwe.
Polio Immunisation Campaign December 2022
Feedback from healthcare workers
““I am very happy using the hamba. Every day I transport sick people to the clinic. I can visit all the compounds I am responsible for each day.” .”
— Village Health Worker
“Without the hamba, we failed to immunize children on due dates for each month. The district office now sees our improved immunization coverage statistics and knows that we can stand on our own without their help like before. They focus on other clinics and only come to support outreach on rare occasions”
— Igava Clinic Nurse
“Not only has the Hamba made my nursing work easier, it has improved the well-being of the community by providing them transport to the clinic and helping deliver firewood for cooking purposes for patients.”
— Igava Health Centre Nurse-in-charge
“For communicable diseases, Hamba enabled us to follow up on contacts and to get firsthand information. Previously one would report inaccurate data due to limited resources for following up. Ambulance services give first preference to delivering mothers at the expense of other activities, and this gap was covered by Hamba.”
— Wedza Health Officer
In Wedza and Igava, we have gathered feedback on the use and impact of the hambas. We learned that there has been wide-ranging use of the hambas by health workers, including supporting the delivery of integrated health services directly in the community and transporting patients to clinics.
The hambas have driven positive impact in a number of areas:
Increased productivity of health workers
Improved equity in access to health services, particularly for distant and less mobile populations
More responsive and people-centred services and enhanced health worker satisfaction and motivation.
Given these promising results, we are continuing to engage stakeholders and working to secure funding to perform a broader pilot in additional districts.
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Why not current transportation?
The current transport approaches used by health workers – bicycles, motorbikes and cars/SUVs – all have limitations. The limited number of motorized vehicles in the public health system are often not allocated to the lower-level facilities that provide primary care services. Even when they are available, the fuel and maintenance required for their regular use can be inaccessible or unaffordable, leaving the vehicles idle. Even when bicycles or motorbikes are available to health workers, many are not experienced or comfortable riding them, particularly women. Finally, existing transport approaches are generally not suitable for the poor road conditions in rural areas.