2022 in review: Together we transformed lives
2022 has been a year to celebrate. Thanks to our incredible supporters, the adaptability and commitment of our partners, consultants, organisations and the governments that Transaid works with, we have continued to improve road safety and access to vital healthcare services in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2022, you have helped us reach major road safety milestones. Transaid and our partners have now trained more than 100 professional driver trainers, who have in turn delivered training to over 50,000 drivers since 2008, having a sustainable and lasting impact on road safety standards in the countries where we work.
Our MAMaZ Against Malaria (MAM) programme also reached a major milestone this year. Since its scale-up in 2018, Transaid and partners have reached over one million people with our integrated severe malaria and COVID-19 response – MAM@Scale.
A world of support
Supporters everywhere used their talents to fundraise for Transaid and our life-saving programmes. It has been a big year for Transaid cycle challenges, with a collective sixty riders returning to their saddles for Hadrian’s Cycleway and the return of our Africa cycle challenge in Malawi. Together the two challenges have raised over £258,000 for our programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.
As we enter Transaid’s silver jubilee year, the end of 2022 saw the launch of our special anniversary cycle challenge – the return of London to Paris, taking place in September 2023. We have also been working hard to recruit runners for a range of challenge events taking place in the next year.
With industry events back in full force this year, Transaid’s fundraising team and Ambassadors were busy working to increase awareness of our work and raise vital funding. We were delighted to announce several fundraising records for industry events, including the inaugural Scottish Transport Dinner in September which resulted in the largest sum of money ever collected for Transaid on a single night – £105,682.50. As well as the Multimodal, and Motor Transport Awards – which both raised incredible individual records for Transaid.
Transaid’s Ambassadors network has continued to grow and several new appointments were made this year, including Kelly Hobson, founder of Shape Tomorrow, GXO’s Paul Smith and Martin Coughlin, and the main organizer of the inaugural Scottish Dinner, Lynsey Mitchell. Each individual has already hit the ground running in their new role, and we look forward to working closely with them next year.
We continued to build upon the relationships with our corporate partners and supporters this year, and during the Multimodal Exhibition in June, EORI (UK) Limited, a customs and border solutions company, became the latest business to join Transaid’s corporate membership programme.
In February, a Scania coach donated by Southern Vectis, which is part of the Go-Ahead Group, and a Volvo truck unit donated by the Malcolm Group, were both transferred to the Industrial Training Centre (ITC) in Lusaka, Zambia during a handover ceremony, to begin their new lives as training vehicles. And in September, a truck and bus, kindly donated by Samworth Brothers Supply Chain and Go-Ahead London arrived at the National Institute of Transport (NIT) in Tanzania, where they will be utilised in the training of drivers, supporting efforts to improve driver training standards.
During our annual Showcase event in September, Transaid’s newly appointed Board Chair – Joan Aitken presented the 2022 Victor Simfukwe Award to the charity’s former Board Chair – Jo Godsmark for her unwavering commitment to our work. GXO graduate Abbie Rennison was highly commended for her nine-month secondment to Transaid’s professional driver training work in Uganda.
At the end of September, we launched our 2022 Christmas Appeal. With a record sixteen industry publications set to run Transaid’s festive advert, the support from the industry through the purchase of a gold, silver or bronze package has been unprecedented. 49 companies have signed up, and over £37,100 has been raised with more expected to come.
Your impact up close
On International Women’s Day in March, we spotlighted some of the inspirational women working for and alongside Transaid. This included Sherly Cleophas, a Minibus Driver and Line Controller at the Bellville taxi rank in Cape Town, as well as Office Manager Sharon Petrus. Both Sherly and Sharon worked closely with the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project team, whereby Transaid and other partners investigated the challenges faced by women and girls as users of public transport.
On World Malaria Day in April, we celebrated MAM@Scale – an innovative, community-led programme designed to address the lack of severe malaria case management capabilities and access to treatment options in rural Zambia. We shared stories from Betshebar Mwape, who utilised a bicycle ambulance to travel to a healthcare facility when her son Best suffered from severe malaria, and Andrew Mundala, a healthcare worker who plays an essential role in treating children with severe malaria.
Road safety highlights – including Royal visit
Transaid’s driver training projects in Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia have seen plenty of important developments this year. In addition to training a total of 5,225 drivers in Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, we have trained 19 trainers in Ghana, and also launched a new driver training programme in Mozambique. Running until July 2023, the project team is supporting refresher training for heavy goods vehicle drivers in small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).
In October, Transaid Patron, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal visited our partners at the Safe Way Right Way (SWRW) Driver Training Centre in Uganda, to see the second phase of the project in the country that is now underway. The Princess Royal met with both Transaid and SWRW team members, as well as some of the 40 female drivers that have been trained at the school in the last two years. This current project in Uganda is an initiative of the GIZ Employment and Skills for Development in Africa (E4D) programme, which is funded by the German and Norwegian governments.
Our work alongside seventeen different agencies from multiple sectors on the National Helmet Wearing Coalition in Kenya continues at pace, as we continue to promote collective action to improve motorcycle safety. This major initiative forms part of the FIA’s Safe & Affordable Helmet Programme, with on-going support and development provided by the FIA Foundation.
This year, together with Durham University, we researched the challenges faced by young women and girls as users of public transport in less accessible parts of three major African cities. In response to research findings, the project team developed and implemented user and employment skills training for women working in the transport sector in Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis. As part of the project a short film was also created to address women’s safety concerns when using motorcycle taxis.
In January 2022, Transaid signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Ghana. This agreement followed less than one year after we began developing a professional driver training programme in the country’s capital, Accra; Transaid’s first project of this kind to be launched in West Africa. With funding from Puma Energy Foundation, this project aims to raise training standards and expand training capacity for heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers.
Support from our corporate members is paramount to the success of our driver training programmes and in September, Jon Aspden, Head of Driver Training at Clipper Logistics (now part of GXO), spent two weeks in Ghana delivering practical training to the master trainers.
Improving access to healthcare
Transaid’s work with communities and governments to improve access to healthcare continued this year, as we implemented the MAMaZ Against Malaria@Scale programme and saw its transition to full government ownership in Zambia. The project team has been working to train community-based volunteers, set up emergency transport systems and tried to ensure that medicines are available when they are critically needed. Importantly, MAM@Scale has retained impact whilst scaling up, still achieving an 87 percent reduction in children dying of severe malaria whilst broadening its reach across ten districts. The government of Zambia has also pledged to scale up to 26 districts.
As the impact of the pandemic continued to be felt in 2022, we continued our work with the Uganda National Health Laboratory Services, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and other partners to provide access to fast, quality COVID-19 testing for truck drivers at border crossings in Uganda. The project team raised awareness of symptoms and prevention, tackled vaccine hesitancy, integrated road safety messaging, and have reached over 7,000 drivers directly.
March 2022 saw the completion of the USAID-funded project in Madagascar, known locally as MAHEFA Miaraka. Led by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health, this was one of Transaid’s longest-running access to healthcare initiatives and focused on maternal and child health. Over a five-year period, more than 100,000 emergency transfers were made to healthcare facilities, utilising taxi cooperatives with minibuses and motorised three-wheelers, ox carts, rickshaws, bicycle ambulances, stretchers and even canoe ambulances, amongst other forms of emergency evacuation.
Thank you from Transaid
Throughout the last year, Transaid has continued to grow the scale and impact of its lifesaving road safety and access to healthcare programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.
Thank you for being part of our journey this year, and helping to make these achievements possible. Transaid wishes a wonderful festive period for those celebrating and we look forward to sharing more updates with you next year, when we celebrate twenty-five years of transforming lives through safe, available and sustainable transport.
Best wishes,
The Transaid team