Feature Stories

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.

“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.

Dr Francis Manyinza, a senior clinician at the Migori County Referral Hospital in southwestern Kenya, wasn’t surprised when lifelong tobacco farmer Petalis Ouma sought medical care for his chronic cough and ever-worsening chest pains. 

“Blood cannot be manufactured. It is only through donations that it reaches those in need,” says Dominique Linguedze, a voluntary blood donor in Brazzaville, the riverside capital of the Republic of the Congo. “To give my blood is to give a little of myself. It makes me feel like a heroine.”

Growing up in the fishing village of Chorkor in Ghana’s Greater Accra region, 46-year-old Mary* experienced regular bouts of malaria. “I remember the fever, the profuse sweating and chills that shook my entire body, and I never want to go through that again,” she says.