Vancity Member Designs Bicycle Ambulances For Africa

A tiny patient tests Design For Development's Bicycle Ambulance in Opuwo village, Namibia

Vancity member Niki Dun believes in designing simple sustainable solutions to critical problems facing our communities around the world and here at home.She believes in empowering those communities, and making them self-sustainable. The Bicycle Ambulance embodies this philosophy.

Dun, an Industrial Design graduate of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, created a buzz with her extraordinary Bicycle Ambulance graduating project in 2003. Niki and the Bicycle Ambulance were featured in the highly acclaimed Massive Change Exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery and gained international attention.

In 2005, Niki and Sue Fairburn co-founded Design For Development, a Vancouver-based charitable non-profit, to bring the Bicycle Ambulance and other innovative solutions to Africa and elsewhere.

Home-based care volunteers training on the bike ambulance. Oshandi, Namibia

Everyday in Africa and the developing world, thousands of people die from HIV/AIDS, malaria, complications from childbirth and other serious illnesses and injuries because of the lack of access to emergency and healthcare services. Our Bicycle Ambulance project is dedicated to addressing this issue and saving lives by improving access to healthcare through safe, effective and sustainable medical transportation.

In 2006 and 2007, successful Bicycle Ambulance pilot projects rolled in Malawi and Namibia. Niki and Design For Development partners worked with local communities to train them in building, running and maintaining the vehicles, using local materials and manufacturing skills.This not only empowers villages, but provides a source of reliable income. There are over 50 bicycle ambulances now saving thousands of lives in these communities.

Himba children in a village near Opuwo, Namibia. The bike ambulances for Opuwo are specifically for the Himba tribe - local cars won't transport them because of the red ochre they apply to their skin.

Niki Dun also believes in a collaborative approach to problem-solving, and sharing knowledge. Under Niki's guidance Emily Carr Institute of Design students Philippa Mennell and Chris Ryan have designed a revolutionary addition to the Bicycle Ambulance family. Building on the success of Design For Development's steel-framed bicycle ambulance for southern Africa, this project goes even further to minimize costs and utilize local manufacturing capabilities by using bamboo as the primary construction material. The Bambulance is a bicycle-pulled stretcher made almost entirely from bamboo, which is universally plentiful, strong,resilient, and environmentally sustainable. Bambulance debuts at the Emily Carr Grad show in May.

The pilot project for Bambulance rolls in the conjested Mathare slums (population 500,000) of Nairobi, Kenya in September.We will be partnering with HEART, The Community Transformers and WEEP.

Community Transformers are a group of Kenyan youth, based in the Mathare slum. They act as community HIV/AIDS educators, mentors to younger children, and relief-givers to HIV/AIDS caregivers. DFD will teach the Community Transformers how to build, run and maintain the Bambulances. The group will then be able to use the income generated from the production of the Bambulances to support and sustain their activities.

The Women’s Empowerment and Education Project (WEEP) assists and enableswomen suffering from HIV/AIDS. By providing women with medical care, access to ARV drugs, nutrition, counseling, school uniforms for their children, and training in needlework, WEEP allows HIV+ women to escape poverty and be healthy mothers to their children. WEEP groups will create the sewn parts of the Bambulance-stretcher, overhead awnings, seat-covers and more.

We are very excited about this pilot project and the potential impact it will have. We would like to invite Vancity members to support our efforts for Bambulance and other projects. Our Charitable Registration Number is 848967568 RR0001

For more information, or to make a donation, please contact Pat at Tel 604.707-0483 Email pat@designfordevelopment.org