Quality healthcare is a whispered promise in a city in the River Nile state of northeastern Sudan, where a humanitarian crisis has crippled the country’s basic infrastructure.
In this part of Africa, illness is not just a struggle—it is a death sentence.
Within this region, there is a refugee crisis bred from the violent clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has led to the displacement of people in their numbers across Sudan.
Despite the scorching heat and the sound of gunshots in the air, 45-year-old Maimunat sauntered with her feverish child, her gaze fixed on the road as she headed to a healthcare centre.
Before now, embarking on this journey to a medical facility for treatment would have meant a 17-kilometre trek, a journey that would have been impossible to make with a sick child in hand.
To this great need, UNICEF, in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health, set up mobile clinics to provide an integrated package of healthcare services, including malnutrition screening and treatment, lifesaving immunisations for children and pregnant women, general health consultations, and reproductive healthcare.
Today, she only needs to walk to the village centre, where a white van with the UNICEF logo stands like a spring in the desert.
“Before, when my children got sick, I had to choose between spending our food money on transport or watching them suffer,” Maimunat explains as a healthcare professional checks her son’s temperature.
“Now, the doctors come to us.”
These mobile clinics act as travelling health stations, resembling a doctor’s office on wheels. So, instead of people going to a hospital or clinic, mobile clinics come directly to their neighbourhood.
It is not just a van—it is a promise, a revolution on four wheels. Inside, it carries more than medicines and stethoscopes; it carries hope and the faint but firm belief that healthcare is a right and not a privilege.
The Harsh Reality Of Healthcare Access
According to the U.S. International Development Financial Corporation (DFC), Africa is home to over 16% of the world’s population and shoulders 23% of the global burden of disease; more than 600 million people in Africa lack access to essential healthcare services—behind these statistics are stories of real people like you and me.
In 2022, Samuel, a roadside laundryman in Nigeria, lost his wife during childbirth because the nearest hospital was over four hours away from where he lived.
In South Sudan, children die from easily preventable diseases because the vaccines they need cannot reach their remote villages.
Diabetes patients in areas such as the Democratic Republic of Congo often abandon their treatment altogether because monthly clinic visits cost more in transportation than they earn in a week.
A significant number of African communities are faced with a severe shortage of medical professionals; according to a report published by the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa has only 2.3 healthcare professionals per 1,000 people (WHO,2019), a number far below the WHO’s recommended minimum of 4.5, this fact further cripples the service of healthcare delivery as many communities never have access to a doctor.
To this harsh reality, mobile clinics present a viable and scalable solution.
How Mobile Clinics Are Transforming Healthcare
How are mobile clinics transforming healthcare in Africa?
- Infant And Maternal Health: For a long time, children and mothers have been victims of health disparities across Africa. In Northern Uganda, the “Mother’s First” mobile clinic program reduced maternal deaths by 38% in participating communities between 2021 and 2023. Thirty-year-old Grace from Gulu applauds these clinics for saving her life during a complicated pregnancy.
- Managing Chronic Diseases: In 2020, a research study published in the International Journal for Equity in Health showed that patients who were participants in mobile clinic treatment in locations across Africa had over 50% of medication compliance. In Ethiopia’s Tigray region, mobile clinics specifically targeting chronic disease management have transformed lives. Mabel, a 52-year-old hypertension patient, had been inconsistently taking her medication because the nearest pharmacy was a day’s journey away. “Now the mobile clinics come monthly, and my blood pressure has stabilised,” she says. “They bring my exact prescription and teach me how to monitor my condition.”
- Infectious Disease Control: In the fight against HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB), mobile clinics have proved to play a very crucial role. In Mozambique’s Zambezia province, tuberculosis detection rates increased by 27% after the introduction of mobile screening units in 2022. These units bring X-ray equipment and rapid testing capabilities directly to high-risk communities. Similarly, Kenya’s “Test and Treat” mobile HIV clinics have revolutionised the fight against AIDS. James Ochieng, a community health worker with the program, explains: “People who would never get tested at a hospital due to stigma will step into our mobile units. We diagnosed 215 new cases in just one district last year and connected them immediately to antiretroviral therapy.”
Challenges And the Road Ahead
Mobile clinics are still faced with sustainability challenges, regardless of their success recorded so far:
Poor road networks are among the many problems faced by mobile clinics, hindering their mobility, especially during rainy seasons.
This is an undeniable infrastructure constraint that pleads for attention in attaining the change we deserve in adequate healthcare delivery.
In Madagascar, during the 2024 rainy season, three mobile clinics were stranded for weeks because rural roads became difficult to navigate. Dr Ranaivo, who coordinates the program, explains: “We had to arrange motorcycle deliveries of essential medicines to communities we couldn’t reach with our vehicles.”
Funding presents another challenge. Many successful programs rely on international donors, creating a concern for sustainability in the long run. When a three-year grant for mobile clinics in Malawi ended in 2023, services to 12 communities abruptly stopped until the government could secure new funding.
For the impact of these revolutions on wheels to be felt, governments must integrate mobile clinics into the strategies of national healthcare, foster public-private partnerships, and allocate budgetary support to ensure this cause stays alive and within reach of the common man.
A Path Forward
For the promise every mobile clinic carries along with it to be fulfilled, several steps need to be taken:
- Chad’s approach provides a model: In 2022, the government allocated 3% of its health budget specifically to mobile health services, ensuring continuity regardless of donor priorities.
- Public-private partnerships, like the one between the Kenyan government and the Safaricom that funds 25 mobile clinics across the country, thereby, demonstrating a sustainable funding model.
- Technology integration is expanding capabilities: In Uganda, mobile clinics are now equipped with telemedicine facilities, connecting patients to specialists hundreds of kilometres away.
A Future Where Healthcare Knows No Boundaries
Today, a lot of Africans in remote areas are receiving the treatment they so desperately need, bringing relief to their hearts and increasing their belief that getting access to quality healthcare is possible.
Children in remote Sudanese villages now receive vaccinations that were once beyond reach. Pregnant women in rural Kenya access prenatal care without walking long distances. Elderly patients in Malawi receive chronic disease management in their own communities.
Thirteen-year-old Ajak from South Sudan perhaps captures the impact best. After receiving treatment for an infected wound that had been festering for weeks, she said: “I thought I would lose my leg because we could never afford to go to the hospital. The mobile clinic did not just treat me; it gave me my future back.”
The motive behind mobile clinics is that no one, regardless of where they are born, or where they live, should ever be made to suffer from health conditions that are treatable.
These moving medical offices are not just a plaster solution; they are proof of what is possible when compassion meets innovation.
One fact remains true, and that is, with continued investment and commitment, mobile clinics can redefine the delivery of healthcare service across Africa. Ensuring that access to lifesaving care is not a privilege, but a right that everyone deserves.
The truth is, in the end, health should never be a dream so distant—rather, it should be a reality for all.
