Feature Stories

60-year-old Raquelina Mazuze is proud of her contribution to the fight against polio as a social mobilizer in her native Mozambique.

As director of a national network of women living with HIV in Zimbabwe, Tendai Westerhof was used to challenging stigma.

A well-known goalkeeper and football coach both in his native Senegal and across West Africa, Lamine Thiare uses his considerable influence to transmit a simple message to young people: “Do not smoke!” he warns them emphatically.

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.

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. 

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.