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Nadja* was planning her wedding two years ago when she learned that she was HIV-positive. Eight months after the wedding, she fell pregnant. "I feared for the baby ... he was still at risk of being born HIV-positive. I became more and more worried,” she recalls.

"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.

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.

Namudu Kareen*, 30, an anti-tobacco advocate in Uganda, was forced to face up to the impact of smoking on her health when her damaged lungs could not supply the necessary oxygen she needed after undergoing surgery in 2020. She needed a ventilator, a machine to help her breathe. The eldest of five children, she stopped smoking a year later and committed to encouraging others to follow suit.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa this week inaugurated the first cohort of candidates of the Mwele Malecela Mentorship (MMM) Programme for Women in Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), established in 2022 in honour of the visionary behind the 2030 WHO road map for NTDs, and one of Africa’s most respected scientists.