Feature Stories

Macron Chauluka is a community health worker on the front lines of Malawi’s ongoing fight against the wild poliovirus.

Stefina Mocuvele looks on as her grandson Nolege plays happily with his siblings. It’s a far cry from his condition three years ago, when a bout of malaria landed the then six-year-old in hospital, 10 kilometers away from their home in Matuba locality in the Chókwè district of Gaza province, Mozambique.

In 2018, 60-year-old James Kimeu Mulei suffered a badly broken ankle that left him unable to walk after a violent attack. A few years previously, this story could well have ended with a permanent injury that restricted Mulei’s ability to work and live a full life. 

When a man in Temessadou M’Boket – a village in the densely forested southern Guinea region – died in early August 2021 after suffering fever, headache and haemorrhage, Fassara Diawara, the head of a local clinic, was quick to act. 

“As a doctor, there are calls you can’t ignore. When there is a health emergency in your community, it is your responsibility to be part of the solution,” says Dr Emile Rwamasirabo, a urological surgeon who participated in Rwanda’s home-based care initiative for COVID-19.

Adetimi Bayo lives with HIV in a heart of poverty in remote Nigeria. Being remote and being poor can mean out of reach of help and hope. When Nigeria decided to change its AIDS story, it changed the life story of thousands of people like Bayo. 

As much-needed COVID-19 vaccinations reach vulnerable groups at a camp for internally displaced persons in Mozambique’s Niassa Province, local health worker Celio Marcelino is responsible for inputting their data into the country’s digital records system. 

Zione Chiwaula, who lives in southern Malawi’s hard-to-reach Neno district, has two children who suffer from sickle cell disease. “They spent most of their early years admitted in hospitals, as they would regularly present with severe symptoms that needed special care,” she says.

Precious Amani may be only 11 years old, but she has already been through a lot. Diagnosed with a Wilms’ Tumor at an early age, she underwent years of therapy before being declared cancer-free four years ago.

Marlène Seck has brought her infant daughter to the Philippe Maguilene Senghor Health Centre in Yoff, Senegal, to be vaccinated against hepatitis B. The baby cries as she receives her jab, but the tears are worth it: having received her first dose at birth, this is her third dose of the life-saving vaccine.