The vital work of Riders for Health is to be highlighted this weekend in ‘Where have all the parents gone?’ a new documentary from CNN’s chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour. In the hour-long programme, Amanpour travels to the slums and villages of Kenya, where more than one million children have been orphaned by AIDS. “For some children, their parents’ disease is their only inheritance” Amanpour explains. “This enemy, AIDS, is a tragedy which bears down on families. It’s a truly shocking story.” But it is not all bad news. Amanpour also meets those who are working to help these families build a better life and receive the treatment they so desperately need including the staff of non-profit organisations Riders for Health and AID Village Clinics. AID Village Clinics (AVC), founded by American philanthropist Ann Lurie, serves 12,000 indigenous Maasai living on the Mbirikani Group Ranch. Typical of many rural communities throughout Africa, the Maasai live in poverty and isolation with no access to medical care. Riders for Health’s work with AVC has provided a vital resource reliable, motorised transport which has allowed the clinic to send outreach health workers right out to the remote communities. Riders’ experts have trained the AVC staff to teach their colleagues and fellow health workers to ride safely in the unforgiving African conditions, and to keep the vehicles maintained so they don’t break down. In the documentary, Amanpour met with Barry Coleman, co-founder and joint CEO of Riders, who gave her a demonstration of the vital need for reliable transport by teaching her to ride a motorcycle in the unforgiving African terrain. “The entire continent of Africa is more or less grounded when it comes to health outreach,” said Barry Coleman, “which is a pretty big problem when you think of the effort that goes into sending drugs and sending health care expertise and it doesn’t reach the people who need it. People are just dying for absolutely no reason at all.” “We have been working with AID Village Clinics for several years to ensure that all the resources at their disposal actually reach the rural communities on a regular basis,” continued Andrea Coleman. “The impact that has been achieved by AVC and their fleets of zero-breakdown ambulances and motorcycles is quite unique in Africa. The health levels of the 200,000 plus people that they reach with education, advice and care on an almost daily basis are astonishing. And the point of this breakthrough is that there is absolutely no reason why it should not be replicated, very quickly indeed, throughout Africa.” The programme will be broadcast in the USA on the 12th and 13th of August check local listings for full details.