Feature Stories

Maroua – “At first, I felt itchy and scratched my body all the time, then my foot started to swell,” says Jacob, a 56-year-old farmer from Goudour in the far north region of Cameroon. “I was ashamed to go out in public. I covered my foot and everyone looked at me strangely. I couldn't even work normally anymore."

Mbabane – When Simangele Dlamini was diagnosed with a pre-cancerous cervical lesion, all the 50-year-old mother from Mankayane in Eswatini could think about was the welfare of her children. “My husband died in 2017 and I didn’t know who would raise them if I died of cancer,” she recalls.

Instead, Dlamini benefited from a multi-pronged strategy by the Government of Eswatini to curb cancers affecting women. Cervical cancer incidence in the country, at 84.5 per 100 000 women, is the highest in the world and compounded by the country’s high HIV burden. 

Kinshasa ‒ In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 47.9% of children aged below five years suffer from chronic malnutrition and 81.1% of those aged between 6 to 23 months do not get adequate nutrition, integrating appropriate nutrition into disease control is crucial to strengthening the country's response to health crises.

Abuja ‒ It all began with a mild stomach ache, something seven-year-old Auwali Abubakar’s parents initially dismissed as a minor issue. 

But as the days passed, the pain intensified and Auwali’s stomach began to swell. He experienced leg pain which affected his ability to walk, became lethargic and lost his appetite.   

“I felt helpless as I watched my son suffer. Nobody knew what type of disease it was and no one could help him,” says his father Mallam Abubakar, from Zamfara State, in northwestern Nigeria.

Cotonou ‒ Throughout her ten years as a midwife, Françoise Kouveglo, who works at Houenoussou Health Centre in Cotonou, Benin, has witnessed some highly emotional moments in the delivery room. “Giving birth is a deeply powerful moment with lots of strong sensations, but what stands out for me is to make sure that the baby is born safely and that both mother and baby are in good health,” she says.

Brazzaville - Mavie Ndama is a phlebotomist at the National Blood Transfusion Centre in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo. She has spent years working at blood donation drives and transfusion stations, drawing blood from countless donors. Yet, despite her vital role in the blood donation process, she had never found the courage to donate blood herself.