Numbers and facts

• 16 employees for work for Sakaramenta.
• 350 CareCars are riding all over Malawi
• 60 up to 80 CareCars can be produced monthly
• 1500 wheels are imported from China,
• All spareparts are widely locally available
• 80 CareCars, is the biggest transport so far

Video about Sakaramenta


History

Peter Meijer (29), a young dynamic Dutchman, got the idea of making bicycle carts and push carts while traveling through Southern Africa ( March 2007). On his trip he saw a lot of overloaded bicycles, packed with bananas, goats, maize bags or tons of charcoal. When he crossed the border into Malawi, he felt in love with the country and decided to explore the possibility of starting up a social business.

In May 2007 he participated in the Business in Development Challenge, a competition for young entrepreneurs. The aim was to work out a business plan to reduce poverty and stimulate entrepreneurship in Africa. Out of the 3000 participants, Peter came out as a finalist. The finalists were linked up with international investors who wanted to take the risk of investing in a social enterprise. And found one.

After a lot of extra research on the product Peter came to Blantyre in February 2009 and started up Sakaramenta.
The first real development was the Care Car, a bicycle ambulance. Given the fact that distance from the rural village to the nearest hospital is on average 15km, a lot of people in the rural villages have difficulties to get access to health care. As a result Malawi is in the top 3 of countries with the highest maternal death. Sakaramenta wanted to propose an affordable and durable solution. They developed a proto type with local available materials and tested it in villages around Chileka and Nkhoma. After testing, adaptations to muddy roads and special covers to protect against rain and sun were developed and the first pregnant women were transported to the hospital successfully. Patients, NGO’s and governments were very enthusiastic and nowadays already more than 300 orange bicycle ambulances are serving the villages all over Malawi.