Madagascar

When ASOS needed bicycles for its medical staff to be effective, STARFISH*
worked with Pedals for Progress to get bicycles into Madagascar. As a result,
eight brand-new Mongoose mountain bikes were provided to ASOS staff members.


FORT DAUPHIN, MADAGASCAR / 60 Bicycles Total
Health Help Action Organization
Action Santé Organisation Secours (ASOS)
This project is co-sponsored by PfP and STARFISH*.

ASOS medical personnel deliver community
health services & health education
where there are no roads - on mountain bikes!

Although ASOS owns a beat-up Rover, it is the mountain bikes that
enable ASOS medical personnel to reach the roadless rural
communities in the Andohalela Nature Preserve, delivering
community health services including vaccinations for children and adult
health education. Before they got bikes, the doctors and their assistants
used to hike to the villages, but their rounds would take 2 to 3 days.
To make things worse, some of the vaccines and medications needed
refrigeration and wouldn't survive a 3 day hike. But with their
Mongoose mountain bikes, back packs, and some ice, the doctors
now make most of their house calls in less than a day.
Almost all of the remote areas that ASOS reaches by bike
cannot be reached by car, and Gasoline supply
is unreliable in Madascar.

*Society Taking Active Responsibility for International Self Help