My interest with the provision of health first stemmed from a personal incident when I was a young boy. I remember visiting my ancestral village in Karonga at the age of 11. While there I suffered from severe Malaria. I remember my father carrying me to the next bus stop on the back of a bicycle, to catch a minibus that would drive us 20 km to the next health facility. Upon arrival, I sat next to a woman covered in sweat who had brought her daughter to seek medical attention. A conversation broke between my father and the woman in local Tumbuka (a Malawi language spoken mostly in the North) about a woman who had been in labor and delivered on her way to the facility. Unfortunately, she lost a lot of blood and in consequence lost her life too. That one event re-calibrated my understanding of the word “lucky”. I was lucky because my father had a bicycle and lucky that my father could afford transportation. I was lucky, because Malaria does not involve having to give birth in the middle of the road.
You see, many people will not have such luck in this a setting and what is more frightening is that today our countries still depend on luck to access health care in some areas. Why must health care luck come at the expense of sacrificing food? Why must a woman choose between transportation to the nearest health care facility and feeding her children? In what world should it be permitted for luck to hold as the currency to a valid health care system? And after all the sacrifice, they are met with incapacitated health centers that are stocked out of drugs and have even less human resources to cover their needs.
Nine year later, 20 years old and cured of Malaria, I found myself in front of social injustice and health inequity which inspired me to co-found a youth led organization called Global Hope Mobilization, with the hopes of bringing to life ideas and efforts that young people have toward social innovation in their communities. I knew it was hard for me to do something at the age of 11. But as I got older, I felt it was important and possible to inspire other young people to venture into such efforts of addressing not only health issues but also broader social and environmental ills. During this journey, working with young people with big ambitions around social justice, I was introduced to a global movement of like-minded youths driven to serve one common goal through uncommon roles. The Global Health Corps (GHC) movement fit perfectly with my progressive wishes.
I dived into the GHC fellowship with an ambition of learning as well as a desire to share my experiences with other youth who did not have the chance to participate in the fellowship. Since GHC’s leadership training at Yale University six months ago, I have witnessed myself growing as a leader. I have also gone from a theoretical economist to applying and merging themes I learned in school to implementing practical health program monitoring and evaluation. Dignitas International, my placement organization, has provided me with a platform to monitor USAID funded projects and help improve the life-saving HIV/AIDS services that are being delivered.
The approach GHC employs in their program of pairing local and international fellows works miracles in broadening cross-cultural exposure and team work spirit. Such an approach makes one reliable and accountable to the other fellow. This has helped me become more of a team player and more willing to share every piece of knowledge I come across. But most importantly it is the partnership between GHC and Still Harbor that brings enlightenment and perspective to the fellowship year and instills a sense of belonging and a push to develop the global health movement. Every time I go through Still Harbor sessions, I am challenged intellectually and spiritually. Such elements always remind me why in the first place I chose to pursue life as a change maker and ensuring social justice, peace and health equity. It is the sense of mindfulness that not only Global Health Corps and Still Harbor share but also that which I have accumulated having stayed amongst the Peace Agent community at Peace Revolution in Thailand. Being mindful of my surroundings, the people I converse with every day and their interactions with different services they pursue creates a sense of being and builds a strong respect for different humanitarian causes.
My time with Dignitas International, where I serve as a Monitoring and Evaluation fellow, has been one such fertile ground where I put to practice the services and knowledge that I have accumulated. Serving more than 167 health centers in ensuring that they have the necessary capacity to provide excellent care and treatment to people in six districts of Malawi has been a milestone in ensuring that expectant mothers deliver in good condition and further reduce the risk of HIV transmission from mother to child.
So when are we going to attain global health equity, social justice or freedom? This is the question that not only rings bells in my ears but it has done so even for the founding fathers of our nation, Malawi. Similar to 44 years ago when Dr. Banda, the first president of Malawi, made a plea in Johannesburg during his visit to the Republic of South Africa and encouraged people to get talking to each other about pressing issues affecting them, today is no different. He stressed that we might not solve the problem today, next month, in five years, ten years or even twenty years. But he honestly believed that the solution lies amongst each one of us by taking the first step towards change. Today I stand in the same spirit as that of Dr. Banda and the GHC community and believe that health care should not be predicated on luck, that the lives of other people should not be based on numbers, sacrifice or chance. I believe that and ask that all of you are part of this continuing journey to improve the health of all mankind.
