Senegal - Gambia 2016 | Bike for Africa

From 27 January till 3 February 2016 Bike for Africa III headed to West-Africa : this 3rd edition of Bike for Africa brought us to Senegal and The Gambia. West-Africa needs our support after the Ebola crisis, and we believed it was a unique opportunity to put these countries in the spotlight.

In 5 biking days we crossed Senegal and The Gambia, a country of steppes, grassland, tree savanna and dry open forest formations, cycling along villages with traditional mud cabins and huge baobabs.

Bike for Africa 2016 raised €150.000 for humanitarian projects. Amongst the participants was Piet Goddaer (Ozark Henry), United Nations Goodwill Ambassador against Human Trafficking.

We supported following organisations

Junior Bears on Wheels

Junior Bears on Wheels , via United Fund for Belgium.

This subdivision of the famous Leuven Bears basketball team offers wheelchair basketball to disabled children. Bike for Africa 2016 donated 26.000 to Junior Bears on Wheels, to be used to buy a trailer to transport the wheelchairs and 4 youth sports wheelchairs.

Muriel Africa

Maternity unit “Muriel Africa” in Mbour.

The Belgian Muriel Jonckheere took the initiative to construct a maternity unit next to the Grand Mbour2 hospital in Mbour (Senegal) entirely funded with donations. It’s the only maternity unit in the area, with 10 beds, a labour ward and a delivery room, changing area and rest room for the midwives. Focus lies on hygiene and cleanliness. Muriel has done tremendous efforts to collect the budget required by addressing all possible service clubs, companies,parishes…Muriel has lost both her son and husband in a short period of time. These tragic losses motivated her to engage in this humanitarian project, dedicated to the remembrance of her son Bernard and to all African women.

Thanks to the donation received from Bike for Africa, Muriel can proceed with the construction and installation of the first floor of the maternity and the overall upgrade if the infrastructure, more in particular:

In June 2016, Muriel succesfully inaugurated a brand-new ultrasound machine in the maternity ward in Mbour. The gynecologist who runs a weekly consultation round in the maternity is thrilled by the quality of the device and the images. She can now perfectly determine the exact number of weeks of the pregnancy, view the foetus from closeby and spot any problems.

Construction works (with a new contractor) have restarted in June as well.

For more info visit www.maternitemurielafrica.com

Electricity
Plumbing
Masonry
Carpentry
Waterproof facade
Painting works

The Horizons Clinic

Cleaning out 100 childbirth facilities across The Gambia via The Horizons Clinic.

Most childbirth facilities in Gambia are below standard when it comes to hygiene and competence of the staff. This results in a high child mortality rate (50% of all child mortality happens within 24 hours after they’re born due to unhygienic conditions). Bike for Africa supported this initiative of the Horizons Clinic (http://www.thehorizonsclinic.com) with the upgrade of 5 facilities during 5 years. The money will be used to successfully change behaviour and attitudes toward cleanliness as well as to establish self-sustainability. The budget will be used for training of midwives, cleaning staff, consumables, and monitoring of compliance and infection rates.

Moreover, in two if the facilities (Serrekunda and Fajikunda), important infrastructure works will be carried out (€70.000):

Ensure 24-hour water supply
Covering of the septic tank and soak away
Maintenance of non-functioning solar water heater
Fix all electrical wiring issues
Supplement electricity supply by providing 12 hours of solar power daily to cover peak periods (already installed in the meantime)

Explore the Programme

WED 27/1/2016
THU 28/1/2016
FRI 29/1/2016
SAT 30/1/2016
SUN 31/1/2016
MON 1/2/2016
THU 2/2/2016
WED 3/2/2016

Read the Journal

05/02/2016

The reason why we cycled 400km

3 February // Visit to Horizons Clinic in Banjul After the cycling challenge of the last week, we of course want to see with our own eyes where the funds we have raised end up and which results were yielded thanks to this. So today we paid ... Read more

03/02/2016

The last frontier

2 February 2016 // Berefet to Banjul // 95km // highest temperature: 40° Last ride today and it is the longest one so far. Everyone is mentally preparing for the 95km we have ahead of us, packing energy bars, bananas and water for the road. Before we ... Read more

03/02/2016

A tour around Berefet

1 February // Tour around Berefet // 30, 50 or 60km // highest temperature: 39° We woke up early again this morning to get an early start, because the mornings are so nice and cool, perfect mountain bike weather. At around 11AM The Gambia seems to have ... Read more

01/02/2016

Crossing the border into The Gambia

31 January // Bike day 3 // Toubakouta to Brefet // 70km // highest temperature: 38° Today we got up at 6AM again, because everyone agreed that today they wanted to leave early to avoid the midday heat. A great off road part was the first stage ... Read more