The Rotary Club of Senlac is pleased to announce the purchase of a new Yamaha motorbike in support of their Yellowmen project in Kenya. The project began twelve years ago and has provided several much needed clinics and medical aid to the remote West Pokot area.
However, some patients have to walk up to 30km carrying a sick member of their family to get to a clinic, whilst others who live high up in the hills and foothills rarely see a medical practitioner. With no regular medical help they are seriously disadvantaged, so the Yellowmen decided to launch the Yellow Bike Project so that they could be reached.
The aim of the Yellow Bike Project was to provide a motorbike which a nurse could use to carry his or her equipment and medicines to isolated communities on a regular basis. Based at the Marich Clinic, the nurse will use the bike to make daily forays into the bush and into the hill villages to provide medical care.
The money for the bike was raised in the UK by Rotarian David Adderley and his friends and the team had hoped to collect the bike in Nairobi in October. Unfortunately, due to the recent terrorist attack and subsequent closure of the customs processing warehouse, the yellow bike was stranded in its container and unable to clear customs.
Rotarian Eddie McCall, Leader of the Yellowmen said: “We already have someone in mind for the nursing position and we also have the medical supplies, so all we have been waiting for is the bike. The good news is that the bike has now been released and will lead the next Yellowmen visit to Marich in February 2014 when it will be transported to Pokot to begin life as a mobile clinic. We hope that this new addition to the Yellowmen project will help alleviate at least some of the suffering of these marginalised people."
The name Yellowmen originated when locals first noticed the Rotarians working in their yellow shirts and one asked a local chief: "Who are these Yellowmen?" and the name Yellowmen of Kadongdong was born.
