Coffee Morning update

Today's coffee morning went really well. In total, we made about £200; not bad for a couple of hours work.

Back in June the Young church sent off a cheque to Riders for a sum equivalent to the cost of providing a motorbike to a health care worker. Given the original target for the project was to raise that sum in a year, the project has gone really well. Now, the additional money is forming the "spanner fund". With this we hope to fund a tool kit which contains all the tools a mechanic will need to keep the motorbikes running well. I think this is about £800 worth of kit, which also covers some of the costs of training the mechanic. As the mechanics are local, Riders is also providing local jobs and security.

As a result of the queue going off to Riders, the young church received a lovely letter from Riders. This had the stories from a health care worker and a mechanic. It's really amazing how these fairly simple things are making such a great difference.

The health care worker is the sole health service for an area around the size of Fife, where the roads are dirt tracks. Before the motorbike, she was barely able to visit 2 villages per month and could never get to a person at the outskirts of her district quickly if they needed urgent medical attention. Now she can visit her whole district in a month and can do more than treat the current needs, but also give health care advice, prevention being better than cure. All this because the motorbike gives her a reliable mode of transport.

The mechanic was locally trained by Riders and is now training other locals to be mechanics. She also trains the health care workers in the routine maintenance of the motorbikes, increasing their reliability. So, not only is Riders helping people get access to health care, it's also providing jobs and training to local people.

It's a bit like that saying. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a day. Give a man the means to catch the fish, feed him for life. That seems exactly what Riders is doing and it's great.