12 Stories that Prove Health Workers Save Lives

World Health Worker Week is an opportunity to mobilize communities, partners, and policy makers in support of health workers in your community and around the world. It is a time to celebrate the amazing work that they do and it is a time to raise awareness to the challenges they face every day. Without them, there would be no health care for millions of families in the developing world. Keep reading

Bike Messenger of Hope

Paolo Kenias is a maize farmer living in Tambala, Malawi. He is quite fit as a result of his farm work as well as the many kilometers he logs every week on his bicycle as an expert HIV client for the Mayani Health Centre. Keep reading

A Tiny Graduate

Beads of perspiration form on the forehead of 3-year-old Veronica Ebenyo as she dozes in her mother’s lap at the maternal and child health unit of Lodwar County Referral Hospital in Turkana County, Kenya. Elizabeth Ebenyo has brought young Veronica for a check-up and is happy to report that her daughter is up to date on vaccinations and has a healthy weight. EGPAF supports this health unit, as well as the HIV clinic at the hospital. Keep reading

Fighting TB With HIV Will Reduce TB Burden & Children Must Not Be Left Behind

While progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS has been steady over the years, the challenge of TB-HIV co-infection remains, especially among children. In 2015 tuberculosis (TB) ranked as the world’s deadliest infectious disease, currently causing the death of 1.5 million people per year. Every year around 10 million people develop TB; 1 million of them are children under the age of 14. Only 64% of these children are properly diagnosed due to lack of adequate technologies, low awareness and failing health systems. Every four minutes a child dies of TB. Approximately 10 million children are left orphaned because of TB every year. Keep reading

A Safe Space for Teens at Mzuzu Health Center

Nurse Emily from Mzuzu Health Center recently attended a training by African Network for Care of Children Affected by HIV/AIDS (ANECCA) supported by CIFF and EGPAF. The training was a follow-up of a visit by ANECCA the week prior, giving support to Mzuzu HC’s popular Teen Club for adolescents living with HIV. The story focuses on Emily’s teaching style in Teen Club and some of the positive outcomes she has had in reaching young people living with HIV in her large community. Keep reading

Am I Not the Healthy One

Justine Sirri is a 29-year-old mother of two living in Bamenda, the Anglophone capital of Cameroon’s northwest region. “I am happy,” she says, “I like being a mother.” Last year Justine was “sick on and off” and suspected that she had malaria. When she came to Bingo Baptist Hospital for treatment, she was counseled and tested for HIV. She discovered that she is HIV-positive. Despite being aware of the challenges that would lie ahead, Justine took the news in stride. Keep reading

Facing Stigma Together in Homabay

Most of the children are orphans—with one or both parents having perished from AIDS-related causes. One in four persons in this fishing community on the shore of Lake Victoria is living with HIV. Keep reading