Boda Girls are pioneering change as the first female motorcycle taxi drivers in their villages. They provide free, safe rides to healthcare in rural areas where distance and lack of transportation often keep women from seeking care.
Expanding Women’s Empowerment & Health Access
Boda Girls:
Boda Girls increase hospital births
Boda Girls is transforming maternal health across rural Western Kenya, where far too many mothers still give birth at home without a skilled attendant—and where a single delay in reaching care can mean the difference between life and death. In these communities, women have long faced the impossible burden of navigating pregnancy with long distances to facilities and without reliable transport or support.
Addressing the “Triple Threat” to Safe Birth
In rural Kenya, preventable maternal and newborn deaths are often explained by what is commonly known as the Three Delays Model, referred to locally as the “Too Late Syndrome.”
UNICEF estimates that Kenya loses approximately 5,000 mothers and 20,000 infants each year, with the highest burden in rural areas where distance to care and lack of transport increase risk. In Western Kenya, where Boda Girls operates, the rates are among the highest in the country. Boda Girls Kenya is changing that!
Delay 1
Deciding to Seek Care
Families may not recognize danger signs early or delay care due to cost, fear, cultural norms, or lack of information.
Delay 2
Reaching Care
Transportation challenges, unsafe roads, and lack of funds can cause critical delays once care is sought.
Boda Girls are trailblazing gender integration in the transport business
Less than 1% of women in Kenya work in the transport sector, but Boda Girls is changing that narrative. The program empowers women to repair motorcycles, coach fellow Boda Girls to improve their riding skills, and mentor new participants—building the expertise to enter well-paying areas of transport such as taxi driving, mechanics, and driver training, that don't require a high school diploma. Today, these trailblazing women are not only breaking barriers in a male-dominated field but also providing a pathway for the next generation of women to follow.
Delay 3
Receiving Adequate Care
Upon arrival, facilities may lack trained staff, equipment, supplies, or emergency readiness to respond quickly.
Why This Matters for Boda Girls
Boda Girls directly address the first two delays - and support the third - by:
Building trusted relationships with expectant mothers
Providing eight free antenatal care (ANC) visits, including transport
Creating a birth plan so the Boda Girl is called when labor begins
Partnering with hospitals trained in emergency maternal interventions
This approach increases timely care, facility-based births, and healthier outcomes for mothers and babies.
800%
Boda Girls' average daily income rose, on average, from $1/day pre-program to $8/day. In two years, that money has helped every single one of them to pay off their zero-interest motorcycle loan and make generational improvements in their family's future. Several have sent their children to better high schools and colleges, bought land, and/or started businesses, that create jobs for others.