6 Frontline Health Heroes Keeping Communities Safe
Their partnership with the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative provides “an opportunity to enjoy life without illness”
With nearly half the world’s population at risk for malaria, health heroes are vital to fighting this deadly disease.
For 15 years, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) has invested in health workers and health systems to accelerate the global fight against malaria and bolster partner countries’ ability to fight other diseases.
In honor of World Malaria Day 2021, we’re highlighting some of the frontline heroes working with PMI to keep their neighbors safe.
1. Patience Buahin, regional health promotion officer in Ghana
Affectionately known as “Sister Pat,” Patience Buahin’s superpower is empowering rural communities to fight malaria. While PMI — in close coordination with the national malaria control program — provides insecticide-treated bed nets and conducts insecticide spray campaigns, it is up to each family to sleep under their nets and allow their homes to be sprayed. And that is where Sister Pat comes in.
“My favorite part of the job is visiting people in their homes and helping them pack out their items for their rooms to be sprayed,” she said. “My joy is made full when they say — thank you for helping us.”
Sister Pat leads production of radio jingles and holds radio discussions to educate people on the benefits and dispel myths and misconceptions on nets and spraying. She also leads engagement with traditional leaders, civil society groups, as well as trains and supervises all the district health promoters.
“Knowing that it is preventable by using bed nets and spraying our sleeping places, I found it necessary to help save my people from needless deaths due to malaria, ” she said. “The desire to work in malaria prevention is informed by my unique interest and passion to empower communities to make healthy life choices.”
2. Aida Ernesto, nurse in Angola
As a facility nurse responsible for prenatal care in Uíge, Angola, each month Aida Ernesto sees about 400 pregnant women with malaria. Malaria can lead to anemia or death in the mother or cause stillbirth or low birthweight for the baby, so Aida’s care is critical.
“I feel useful and valued by my community and my country, at the same time, for helping to save lives against malaria and be an instrument for the treatment,” Aida said. “I wish to always improve and for that, the support of PMI is crucial.”
Aida has taken two PMI-funded trainings: one on treating malaria in all patients and one on preventive care especially for pregnant women.
“After this training and new knowledge, I felt like a new person,” she said. The same patients used to come back with malaria each month, but now that Aida and her colleagues have applied new skills, people are making full recoveries. Aida also passes on her knowledge by training health workers and volunteers.
“Nurse Aida teaches me a lot about how to give workshops to pregnant women,” Nzumba Kiyuno, an activist, said. “Thanks to Aida, I’m able to educate them to prevent them from having malaria and improve their health and also of all their family.”
3. Tsankho Kapanda, warehouse manager in Malawi
Sometimes heroes wear hard hats. Tsankho Kapanda has managed PMI-funded malaria supplies such as tests and medicines in Malawi since 2011.
“My career in the pharmaceutical supply chain makes it worthwhile for me because at the end of the day, I get satisfaction knowing that the work the team and I do is making a difference in the patients’ lives by helping them get proper malaria diagnosis and treatment at the right time,” said Tsankho.
Tsankho’s work has boosted local trust in the public health system. Her fellow villagers in Dete were especially happy to learn malaria medicines are made available with support from the American people, and were motivated to seek treatment from health facilities confident they would have quality-assured medicines in stock.
“We are proud of her, and she deserves recognition,” said Dr. Michael Kayange of the National Malaria Control Program. He also describes the warehousing and the supply chain management supported by PMI and its partners and managed by Tsankho as an “efficient and successful system” that functions “impressively well.”
4. Sopa Yuwanakul, village health volunteer and malaria post worker in Thailand
Sopa Yuwanakul’s Thai village is on the mountainous Burmese border and a half-day journey from the nearest medical facility.
Seeing the devastating impact of malaria on her neighbors’ livelihood and eager to ease their suffering, Sopa joined the village health volunteer program and later trained as a malaria post worker.
“I’m happy to follow-up with the patients and see they take medicine because I certainly know that they will be recovering from malaria infection soon,” said Sopa, whose sibling had malaria twice.
In addition to increasing timely access to primary health care and malaria treatment, she distributes insecticide-treated nets and hammocks to fellow villagers and migrants so they can prevent future malaria infections.
“Because of her services, many lives are saved from malaria,” said village leader Boonsong Chairochpanya.
In fact, thanks to the work of Sopa and her colleagues, their province of Tak hasn’t had any malaria deaths in recent years. They are also an essential part of Thailand’s PMI-supported drug efficacy monitoring that requires follow-up of all malaria patients four times after a confirmed diagnosis to ensure successful cure.
5. Thérèse Mutombo Kabula, laboratory supervisor in the Democratic Republic of Congo
For Thérèse Mutombo Kabula, being of service is a gift from heaven. She can directly contribute to solving her province’s malaria problem by investigating blood samples under a microscope. From this, Thérèse can determine if a person has malaria, the species of malaria parasite and how severe the infection is, thus allowing the clinic team to make more informed treatment plans.
Thérèse’s responsibilities also include overseeing the laboratory’s staff and adherence to biosafety and quality standards.
After building her confidence and skills, she has become a vocal advocate for the PMI-supported Outreach Training Supportive Supervision Plus (OTSS+) approach, which includes coaching and mentoring health workers to improve adherence to quality standards.
“Before OTSS+ our health facility had difficulty counting parasites according to WHO guidelines and implementing internal quality assurance,” said Thérèse. “The OTSS+ visits helped me improve a lot by allowing me to follow, step-by-step, the malaria microscopy standards to improve the quality of our services.”
Thérèse believes that supervision must accompany training for providers to experience real returns on investment. Through supervision, providers identify systemic weaknesses and more quickly implement corrective actions, allowing for continual and sustainable enhancement.
6. Beatrice Amukasa Oluoch, spray team leader in Kenya
It is a massive undertaking to get insecticide onto the inside walls of homes to protect communities from malaria-carrying mosquitoes. During annual campaigns, spray operators work long, hot hours in protective gear, lugging equipment house-to-house.
Community health volunteer Beatrice Amukasa Oluoch applied to be a spray operator for the 2018 PMI-funded spray campaign to prove to her village that women could do the job, too. A year later, she became a spray team leader.
Her hard work and diligence became widely recognized as she helped ensure all eligible structures in the visited homes were sprayed properly and the data recorded accurately. She is now leading her third campaign and her team of six sprayers is one of the best performers in the entire sub-county — and the only one led by a woman.
With the money Beatrice earns from spraying, she buys seeds to boost the productivity of her farm, which has helped pay her son’s university fees. But Beatrice’s motivation to work on spray campaigns goes beyond breaking gender barriers and financial opportunities.
She explains that it is “to serve my people in one of the noblest jobs: fighting malaria and preventing preventable death of children, pregnant women and giving more people an opportunity to enjoy life without illness.”
About the Author
The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), led by USAID and co-implemented with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, supports 24 partner countries in sub-Saharan Africa and three programs across the Greater Mekong in Southeast Asia to control and eliminate malaria.
