| Help us to stamp out deaths resulting
from pregnancy and delivery complications! |
| Used stamps we receive are exchanged
for cash, which is then applied to our program to send
refurbished bicycles to grassroots midwives and health
volunteers in developing countries. |
| Refurbished
bicycles are village ambulances |
Exceeded only
by China and America, Japan is third in the world for
its number of bicycles, at a total of 70 million. However,
in 1998, 2.6 million bicycles left in front of train stations
or on the street were confiscated by the government, 800,000
of which were turned into scrap metal.
In contrast, just one bicycle in a village in a developing
country can be used to carry an emergency patient to the
village health clinic to administer treatment before it
is too late. Every year there are 580,000 people in developing
countries who die of complications or accidents during
pregnancy or delivery.
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| In an effort to bridge this gap, JOICFP,
in collaboration with fourteen local municipal Japanese
governments, has established an organization to send bicycle
assistance to people in developing countries. This program
is referred to as MCCOBA,
which stands for Municipal Coordinating Committee for
Overseas Bicycle Assistance. |
| During the years between 1988 and 2002,
MCCOBA has donated 38,100 bicycles to grassroots health
volunteers in seventy nine different developing countries.
In Tanzania, one bicycle is equal to the salary of one
villager. Accordingly, recipients who have benefited from
these bicycles have deemed them “the legs
of life”, “two-wheeled ambulances”,
“mobile pharmacies”, “iron
horses”, and “presents from
the gods”. |
Distribution
of the bicycles once they reach the villages is determined
by village leaders and representatives. In addition, because
bicycle recipients work to promote the health and happiness
of the people, they are granted tax exemption by the government.
Health volunteers use these bicycles to distribute medicine
and give sanitation education to village members who are
unable to go to examination centers. In Zambia, where
a large percent of villagers are unable to read or write,
community bulletin boards are of little use, and furthermore,
paper to produce village circulation readings is unavailable.
Therefore, donated bicycles enable health volunteers to
make village rounds to inform residents of health and
sanitation issues, and to make necessary house calls.
In Nepal, before receiving the assistance of MCCOBA, all
house calls were made on foot, which was very time-consuming.
Because bicycles cut travel time in half for health volunteers
and midwives making house calls, the number of people
receiving care is increased, and therefore the work efficiency
of health volunteers and midwives is raised overall.
JOICFP has received national and international acclaim
as an ideal case of an institution carrying out its programs
while working within the limits of the earth’s natural
resources. |
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Nepal
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