Community work is tough and requires a lot of sacrifices. To voluntarily serve members of your community day and night without pay is perhaps the highest form of sacrifice. But this is what community health workers have committed to do every day. Determined to eliminate the deadliest killer of infants and adults alike, our community-based volunteers are resolved and determined to play their part. In all our years of service, perhaps no one personifies sacrifice like Elias Banda. We met Elias Banda on June 4th, 2022.

I had a great learning experience on my recent trip to Zambia. Last month, a group of us spent nine incredibly busy days learning in great detail what goes on behind the scenes, at every level, to train, equip, and deploy Community Health Workers (CHWs) who bring community-based healthcare to rural villages in Zambia.

After nearly two years of building friendships via Zoom meetings, at long last, I was able to meet – in person – with (l-r) Dr. Mwangala Muyendekwa, Morton M’gemezulu, Martha Lungu, and Modestine Kaoma.

From time to time, I get that knock on my door and it usually culminates into a long chat about malaria. Talking to different people, young and old, educated and uneducated, family and friends; I have come to find that so many people, do not fully understand malaria.

On Friday 1st October 2021, a cohort of 30 community health workers (CHWs) from Mpika district in Muchinga Province took up arms against Plasmodium falciparum, the deadly parasite notorious for causing 98% of the malaria cases in Zambia.