Feature Stories

Diana Adom*, 54, was diagnosed with schizophrenia eight years ago, a mental health condition that devastated her life before she finally got the care she needed, including the medication that set her on the path to recovery.

Ouagadougou – Domdasse Adama could barely walk, with his left side paralysed and reliant on a cane. “But thanks to the support and treatment I received for hypertension, I can now walk on my own, and even ride a bicycle for several kilometres," he says.

Adama's journey to recovery from impaired mobility due to hypertension was far from easy. In the bustling town of Gana in central Burkina Faso, where medical resources were limited, his struggle to receive timely and effective care was a common challenge. 

Leaning against the wall in a corridor at the University Hospital Centre in Abeche, a town around 900 km east of the Chadian capital N'Djamena, Dr Sassil Dare takes a few minutes to catch his breath. It is 3pm and he has already completed three surgeries.

When Jean Paul Nduwumwe decided to have a hepatitis test while accompanying his pregnant wife on a clinic visit, he had no idea that following a positive result and three months of treatment his health and well-being would be restored, and he would feel “reborn”.

For four months Stella Fikiri underwent a variety of tests at several private health care institutions, before finally being diagnosed with diabetes at the Magomeni Public Health Facility in Kinondoni, a district in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Attending a health centre was an “unattainable luxury” after the Batsirai and Emnati cyclones hit Madagascar’s south-eastern Vatovavy region in February 2022, cutting off any access to care for Toky Rabemaharo and his community.

Challenged by high cholesterol levels and hypertension, and later diabetes, 58-year-old Mola Admassie says his life has significantly changed thanks to the availability of noncommunicable disease services at the health centre 600 metres from his home.

In Guinea, around 30 health centres offer free cervical cancer screening services, giving thousands of women the chance of early detection of the disease, and appropriate treatment.

Hammanskraal resident Tebogo Hlongwane was terrified when she took her three-year-old son, Agisang, to the emergency room at Jubilee District Hospital.

"My husband was against contraceptive," recalls Aïssa*. She recently gave birth to triplets. She has four older children, the youngest barely two years old. "Since the triplets, the financial burden has grown so much that it's been easier to persuade him," she adds.