Charity Ride from Tibet to Wales in aid of Motorcycle Outreach

[caption id="attachment_70" align="alignleft" width="258"] Mark and Nigel Crew[/caption]

Two brothers from South Wales, Mark and Nigel Crew, will set off on 21st April 2012 from Shanghai on a six-week adventure that will include riding a motorcycle and sidecar across the Himilayas, and a motorbike ride from Athens to the Caspian sea and back to Wales, They are raising money for the charity Motorcycle Outreach, which provides essential transport for healthcare workers in developing countries.

Nigel Crew explained

We have been planning this trip for 18 months. We will start from our youngest brother Jonathans home in Shanghai and then head to Lhasa. There we join a group of eight veteran motorcycles and sidecars and a film crew. We will then ride from Lhasa in Tibet to Kathmandu in Nepal, including visiting Mount Everest base camp.

In the meantime our motorbikes are being transported to Athens. We will the collect them and head north east to cross Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan to reach Baku on the Caspian sea. Then we head all the way back to Wales, collecting money all the way.

Mark Crew added:

We have wanted to raise money for this charity (www.motorcycleoutreach.org) for some years. They do a lot of work in the remote areas of Indonesia, including delivering essential midwifery services. When Jonathan lived in Indonesia his wife Laura had a very difficult birth delivering the twins Emily and Felix. Fortunately she had access to good medical facilities, but in remote areas, without charities such as Motorcycle Outreach, the outcome could have been very different.

For more information visit www.bikezen.co.uk or follow the brothers on Twitter @NickC46, @badlydrawnk9 and @warmgazpacho

 

Motorcycles help reduce the maternal mortality in Indonesia

Health for All operates in NTT (Nusa Tengara Timur) which is the province which despite major improvement still shows the highest rate of death rate for mothers in Indonesia. The result of a National Health Survey in 2004 showed that in Indonesia as a whole the death rate of mothers reached 307 per 100,000 live births. NTT had a rate of 554 per 100,000 live births.
In 2007, the Health Demographics in Indonesia showed the national decrease reached 208 per 100,000 while in NTT 306 per 100,000 live births. Although the NTT rate had decreased it was still higher than other provinces.

By way of comparison the rate for the United States in 2005 is 11 per 100,000. Further information on this topic can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternal_death.

The infant mortality rate in 2004 in Indonesia was 52 per 1000 born alive while in NTT there was an improvement from 62 to 57 per 1000 born alive.

The result of Basic Health Research in 2007 showed that in NTT 77,1 % of delivery services were done at homes, 6,9 % in government hospitals, 6,5 % at public health or sub public health centres, 3,5 % at village maternity houses, 3,0 % in maternity private hospitals and 0,7 % at other places.
Healthworker in NTT with expectant mother
Basic health research in 2007 shows that 46,2 % delivery were done by trained traditional midwives, 36,5 % by midwives, 11,5 % by the member of the family, 4,1 % by doctors, 1,2 % by medical staff and 0,5 % by others.
From the facts above it is clear that many births take place with no health facilities.

A woman's mortality is caused by unskilled medical staff and unsterile equipments. A causal factor of infant and maternal mortalities is the minimum means of transportation. This applies both to the families and also to the medical staff who lack the means to reach remote areas.

[caption id="attachment_370" align="alignright" width="456"] Healthworker in NTT with expectant mother[/caption]

Ideally, during the pregnancy period, a mother should get a health check-up and service called Ante Natal Care (ANC). Ante Natal Care is given to an expectant mother during pregnancy according to the standard of midwifery service. This includes the measuring weight and height blood pressure, measuring fundus uteri height and checking tetanus imunisation status and toksoid tetanus, giving minimum go ferum blets during pregnancy, routine and specific laboratory check-up.There are typically four check-ups, minimum once in the first 3 month, once during the second three months and twice in the third three months.

Due to the condition of NTT and the island's hilly topography in general women do not get the standard health check-ups during pregnancy. One way the health service solves this problem is by providing motorcycles for the use of health staff. The motorcycle is chosen since this means of transportation is capable to reach the remote areas.
By: Mansetus Kalimantan, HfA Field Coordinator

Successful ascent of Kilimanjaro in aid of Motorcycle Outreach

I looked up towards the silhouetted rim of the mountain and wondered if the stars that I saw twinkling in the night sky just above the rim were actually just head torches from other people, beaming brightly in the cold night.

"I just hope it's stars," I thought to myself, "because that's one heck of a climb still to go to reach my final goal at the top of the highest free standing mountain in the world." Then I realised that the stars were moving, pressing on, "pole pole" (slowly slowly in Swahili).

So that's what I did, pressed on - one foot in front of the other, with the altitude, the scree and the rocks making every inch hard work - until I could see the sun peeking its weary head over the glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro. Then my spirits rose, my steps became lighter and I knew that within a few minutes I would be standing on top of the mountain that had seemed such a distance away last January yet now was no distance at all.
So it was that at 6am on 24th September 2009 I reached the plateau at 5,895meters and walked the short distance to the sign which stated that congratulations were in order because I was standing at Uhuru Peak, Tanzania (where Simon Milward had stood all those sunrises ago) and I let out a short breath and said . "I've done it!"

Now reality set in, as it was damned cold up there, but you have to try and take it all in quickly because you have so little time. I gave my camera to Jason and he kindly took the photograph of me in the place where many a weary soul has stood, by that very unique worn out piece of wood.

Gloves off and it's my turn to take snapshots of the beautiful landscape around me, but intense cold has a habit of making you want warmth so after about 15 minutes it was time to leave the summit of the volcano and start the 6-hr-plus climb back down to camp Barafua at 4,600 metres.

It's always a strange feeling to leave somewhere you have always dreamed of being, so I stretched out my arms to feel the last blast of cold air and to thank the wind that took me to this place before I started weaving my way back down Kilimanjaro.
The rest, as they say, is history but on my eight days of trekking up and down Kilimanjaro I have come to respect anyone doing the same. Believe me, there are few that walk its sacred paths because this is not an easy climb. OK you may have porters carrying your tents and various other bits for you but you still have to conquer your weariness and the altitude, and you are still roughing it on a mountain that can turn misty and cold and wet at anytime.

Some nights were cold but, hey, I still got up at 2am to have a pee in the woodshed they call the "long drop" (ooh that smell!) and walked back to my tent looking up at the clear night sky with millions of stars looking back at me (well really it was minus something, because I couldn't feel a thing!) But the point is, you have to push yourself to make the summit of Kilimanjaro, so fair play to everyone in history that has made it there.

To all my friends, family and all the folks who put their hard work into helping me raise the money for Motorcycle Outreach in memory of Simon, I thank you very much.

Also all that donated their hard earned cash.

Also those that should have, but didn't. I forgive you.

Derek Skinner,

Kilimanjaro Trek in aid of Motorcycle Outreach

On the 16th to the 27th September 2009 I, Derek Skinner, will be following in the footsteps of the inspirational Simon Milward (1965-2005) and climbing, scrambling and puffing my way up 5,895 m to the top of Kilimanjaro. Simon climbed the world's highest free standing mountain in 2005. I hope to stand where Simon stood on top of Kilimanjaro.

I'm doing this

1: to test myself as a person

2: in the memory of Simon

3: to raise as much money as possible for Motorcycle Outreach.
I don't need to tell you the great job being done delivering healthcare to the outlying villages in the poorest and most remote regions in the world.

Raising as much as possible (with your help) for Motorcycle Outreach I hope I can do my bit so they can carry on the great work they do.

So please donate on http://www.justgiving.com/derekskinnerkilimanjarotrek

In September 2009, Derek Skinner successfully climbed Kilimanjaro. For more info...

 

Motorcycle Outreach Stand at 2009 BMAD Paignton Bike Festival

Motorcycle Outreach was represented at a stand at the 2009 BMAD Paignton Bike Festival in Devon,UK. Derek Skinner (soon to tackle Kilimanjaro), the Milward family and helpers enjoyed the weather, explained the mission of Motorcycle Outreach and showed off Simon's Overlander.

Horizons Unlimited UK Travellers Meeting July 2008

Horizons Unlimited, the overland travellers community recently donated nearly 600 GBP to Motorcycle Outreach which was raised at the HU UK travellers meeting in Ripley Derbyshire (July 3rd to 6th).

Horizonsunlimited.com is THE overland travellers website and offers a wealth of information about all aspects of overland travel. HU travellers meetings are held all over the world and at the 2008 UK event, MoR's Craig Carey-Clinch and Barbara Alam were delighted to learn that MoR had been selected as the HU charity for the event. Nearly 600 GBP was raised during the weekend through individual donations and a raffle.

[caption id="attachment_453" align="aligncenter" width="640"] BMW round the world bike as used by Grant and Susan, founders of Horizons Unlimited[/caption]

 

MoR Gains Support of Actor Eric Richard (from "The Bill") at London Motorcycle Event

Motorcycle Outreach is delighted to announce that Actor Eric Richard has agreed to help support MoR in 2008.

[caption id="attachment_461" align="alignright" width="640"] Left to right: Craig Carey Clinch (MoR), Eric Richards[/caption]

Eric is well known for his role in the UK TV show 'The Bill', but he is also a leading figure on the UK motorcycle scene and is also no stranger to trans continental motorcycle travel. Last year Eric completed a North American journey on his BMW R1200GS Adventure before joining leading motorcycle travel and adventure company, GlobeBusters, for the Central American section of their Trans America Expedition.

Last weekend, Eric joined the MoR team at the Bikesafe motorcycle event in London, England, to support the MoR stand and help raise awareness of its work in Indonesia. MoR currently provides 14 motorcycles for use by healthcare workers in remote rural areas of the island of Flores.

Eric commented; "Using motorcycles for healthcare work in areas, where roads or either poor or non existent, is really the only way of getting the job done. I am very pleased to be supporting Motorcycle Outreach in 2008 and helping them to raise awareness of an often forgotten part of healthcare work in developing countries; providing practical transport so that nurses and healthcare workers can actually do their job."

In 2008, MoR plans to further consolidate activities in Indonesia, which will include replacing some of the older 110cc and 125cc motorcycles which are reaching the end of their service life. In addition, MoR hopes to start funding specific motorcycle based projects in other developing countries.

Using motorcycles for primary healthcare is fantastic value for money, but it still costs around £12,000 a year to provide very basic logistics services for one healthcare district in a country like Indonesia. Eric Richard is appealing for public support and funding to help support MoR's work.

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More info about the show at the Bikesafe website