When her three youngsters didn’t have sufficient to eat, Monica Atieno determined to use for a job via a brand new program that was recruiting girls to develop into bike taxi drivers — a career lengthy dominated by males.
At first, she stored her plan a secret from her husband, who was himself a bike taxi driver of their city of Ukwala in western Kenya. When he came upon, he was livid and threatened to go away. However Ms. Atieno, who’s 29, says she advised him: “I’m going to do it, as a result of I do know what I’m going to attain.”
Final 12 months, after tons of of hours of coaching, she grew to become a bike taxi driver — a “Boda Woman,” as they’re known as. She’s now one in all solely about 1,000 girls among the many estimated 2.5 million bike taxi drivers within the east African nation of Kenya, in accordance with the Boda Boda Security Affiliation, an advocacy group.
The street to success has been stuffed with obstacles. Lots of the girls who signed up, like Ms. Atieno, had by no means earlier than pushed a bike, not to mention a automotive. They’ve confronted harassment from passengers and fellow drivers. Their husbands voiced disapproval.
The ladies obtained coaching in important expertise like self-defense and mechanics. Now, many say they’ve begun to earn incomes and independence, found new strengths and, in some instances, began to assist their whole households — accomplishments they as soon as thought unimaginable.
“After I joined Boda Ladies, my life modified fully,” mentioned Lilian Rehema, 33, one of many first girls bike taxi drivers in her space. “My youngsters can gown properly. They’ll get meals daily.”
This system began when Dan Ogola, who had helped discovered the native Matibabu Hospital 20 years in the past, seen that girls have been recurrently coming to the hospital seeking work — whether or not as cooks, cleaners or receptionists.
The hospital was one of many largest employers in Siaya County, the place a million residents stay principally in villages and small cities linked by purple soil roads that wind via flat plains and rolling hills. Many individuals make a residing by farming maize, cassava or candy potatoes. Others fish in Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake. Jobs are scarce, particularly for girls.
On the similar time, Mr. Ogola seen a troubling sample: When these similar girls grew to become sufferers, they couldn’t afford transportation to the hospital for medical checkups. Many needed to stroll as much as two hours, even when pregnant, to achieve the hospital. Some ended up giving delivery en route.
So, with the assist of an American charity, the Tiba Basis, which additionally helps fund the hospital, he employed a driving faculty to coach girls bike taxi drivers. In April 2022 he recruited 10 girls from close by villages — the primary cohort of “Boda Ladies.”
“We kill poverty by creating jobs for them,” he mentioned, “and so they carry individuals to us and make well being companies accessible to girls.”
After Ms. Rehema’s husband died, she and her 4 youngsters might not survive on cash from rising kale on her small farm. On the verge of dropping her house, she was compelled to beg for cash. After years of wrestle, she got here throughout Matibabu hospital’s stunning job alternative when she went there hoping to seek out work as a cook dinner.
She had by no means earlier than heard of ladies driving boda-bodas, because the two-wheeled taxis are known as.
Boda-bodas originated within the Nineteen Sixties when riders alongside the border between Kenya and Uganda would shout “border to frame” to draw clients, in accordance with researchers. What began as bicycle taxis finally reworked into bike taxis — typically low-cost, imported bikes from India. Boda-bodas grew to become one in all Kenya’s main financial forces.
“I didn’t know methods to trip, however I might be taught,” Ms. Rehema mentioned.
With time and persistence, she mastered the talents to navigate the area’s unpredictable dust roads: hitting the brakes simply earlier than turns and leaning into corners whereas holding regular. She realized methods to change engine oil in inconvenient circumstances.
Two years in the past, she grew to become one of many first feminine drivers in her space. Now, she rushes expectant moms to ship their infants within the hospital, and transports girls and their infants to checkups. When she arrives on the hospital, she greets everybody with heat smiles, kisses infants and shakes fingers like a beloved native politician.
The “Boda Ladies” program was an instantaneous hit, inspiring others.
Every morning, Lucy Odele marveled on the confidence of the Boda Ladies zooming previous her home. Ms. Odele had had polio as a toddler, leaving her with a limp in her proper leg and making it onerous for her to face for lengthy. It additionally made discovering work much more tough. Residing as a single mom together with her mum or dad, Ms. Odele, 38, longed for independence. She utilized to this system, and joined 13 different girls in Could 2023 as a part of the second cohort.
However Ms. Odele mentioned she had initially struggled, discovering it onerous to swing her leg over the bike. “I used to cry. I might see others make progress, whereas I stayed the place I used to be,” she mentioned.
Refusing to surrender, this system discovered her an answer: a smaller scooter that she might extra simply mount. At evening, she wheels it fastidiously into her cramped home, positioning it subsequent to her couch like a trusted good friend.
“I do know what it’s like, strolling lengthy distances to clinics,” she mentioned. “I don’t need anyone to undergo the best way I suffered.”
This system has now skilled 51 girls. Within the early morning mild, they are often seen on their colourful bikes with brilliant pink seats — a mark of their trainee standing. After they graduate, they’re given purple leather-based seats, every displaying the hand-stitched Boda Ladies emblem.
Final summer season, when Violet Onyango was in labor, her household couldn’t afford the fare to move her to the hospital, and the child’s father refused to assist. So she known as one of many Boda Ladies who had already pushed her to a number of checkups, who gently transported her without spending a dime to the hospital to securely ship her child lady.
Afterward, Ms. Onyango, an avid soccer participant, mentioned of her child, “I need her to go to highschool, get an schooling and develop into a footballer like me.”
Many male boda-boda drivers consider that girls are taking their jobs.
“Earlier than the Boda Ladies arrived, I used to be doing nicely, however issues modified,” mentioned Frederic Owino, a longtime boda-boda driver within the county. “Since they got here, my work has decreased.”
Kevin Mubadi, chairman of the Boda Boda Security Affiliation of Kenya, which helps inclusion for girls drivers, mentioned, “Some passengers nonetheless discover it unusual for girls to trip boda-bodas.”
He added that girls additionally typically expertise “sexual harassment from male shoppers.”
To guard themselves, the Boda Ladies be taught self-defense. Trainers educate them to cease the bike if a passenger is inappropriate, firmly assert the foundations and take a defensive stance — arms prolonged, palms out, able to kick if threatened.
The Boda Ladies have gone on to share these expertise with ladies in close by faculties.
The panorama is slowly altering, with extra girls becoming a member of the trade not simply as drivers, but additionally as engineers and mechanics — altering mind-sets throughout them.
Ms. Atieno’s once-skeptical husband, who had threatened to go away when she first enrolled in this system, modified his thoughts after a month when he noticed that she was already incomes double what he made. Along with her Boda Woman earnings, she purchased a cow and a number of other pigs, and expanded into different ventures like making cleaning soap and tailoring.
One morning in July, she carried two of their youngsters to highschool on the again of her purple bike. Her husband hopped on too, so he might attend a parent-teacher assembly. After dropping them at college, Ms. Atieno rode on — off to work.
