For many individuals living in rural Africa, there is no safe way to travel. In Malawi, for example, a bus ticket, even for minibuses that cram 2 dozen riders and their baggage into a vehicle built to seat nine, is priced out of reach for many rural Malawians. So travelers turn to less expensive alternatives, such as walking or open-bed pickup trucks that operate like taxis. “Passengers jump in the back of the pickup, give the driver some money, and jump out when they get where they want to go,” says Thomas J. Vitaglione, MPH, a senior fellow at the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute, who spent time in Malawi last year to assist with an orphan care project that he helped to establish in 1995. However, traveling in pickup trucks is a dangerous practice; when the vehicle hits a bump, some of the riders may be tossed out and injured. Those who cannot afford to ride in the back of a pickup truck must walk — and the easiest place to walk is along the road, where they are at risk of being injured by a passing vehicle. (Author/publisher)
Abstract