Q: Where did you grow up, and what shaped your early life?
A: “I grew up in Zambia, I was born in 1967 in the northern part of Zambia, a small town called Mansa, that’s where I grew up. I come from a very, very humble background. My parents had 12 children and I was the second last in the family.
My mother was a home carer, she would take care of us, and then go to the fields as a peasant farmer. I would go to school. I would travel about 15 kilometers from my home with my siblings. And we’d start off very early in the morning before the sun rises.
At that time, I don’t remember having shoes on. In that part of the world, in Africa, Zambia in particular, we look at extended family. Sometimes, on average, we’d be around 17 in a home. My parents had instilled in us very good values of really sharing and my mother would prepare a big pot of nshima or porridge with whatever relish there was at the time. When we returned after school, we’d all cram together and my mother would always call the passers-by and she would invite them to come and eat with us. That always stuck with me.”
Q: What was it like being the second youngest in such a big family?
A: “At first it felt like you were the little one, but at some point you grow up and start taking up responsibilities in the family. Our bigger siblings would take the little ones off from my mother and we would stay with them.
I personally went to stay with my other sister, Agnes, who had become a teacher. Then I was able to get to wear shoes, to go to school, and wear uniforms. It was a great feeling to live in such a big family setup. But, if you were late to come to a meal, you would find the older siblings will have finished the food.
Q: How has malaria affected your family and you personally?
A: “We were suffering from malaria every other day. It was like a norm. Every person in the family would suffer from malaria. The nearest health facility was very far. You would walk nearly 20 kilometers to go and access the nearest health facility.
Our parents used to use the traditional herbs. You would steam them and then you kind of cover yourself. Sometimes the malaria went. Sometimes it didn’t.
When I was an adult, I had a very bad bout of malaria. When you have malaria, you are confused, you are sweating, you have this pounding headache, you don’t have any energy. After a few minutes, you start feeling shivery, you start vomiting, and you vomit yellowish stuff. I ended up at the hospital and I was admitted for, I think, two, three days… I was given the injectable treatment, quinine. It did work and I recovered. That particular experience never comes out of my mind.”
Q: What malaria prevention habits do you practice and teach at home?
A: “We’ve been trying to emphasize the simple tricks to prevent malaria: if you are going to go out in the evening make sure that you cover your body, carry a mosquito repellent, sleep in a mosquito bed net.
At about 15–16 hours it’s a rule at our house, you have to close the windows. Because that’s about the time that the mosquitoes get inside the room. Each time you’re going out of the room, make sure that you close the doors and the windows. You’re better off preventing rather than curing.”
Q: Can you share a moment when quick action became impact?
A: “We went in the field, it was rainy, we saw this woman with a baby. About two or three years old. He looked very sick… the Rotarian doctors we were with requested that they rush this child to the main hospital. They said, “If we waited another one, two hours, we’re going to lose that child.”
They rushed this child to Ronald Ross Hospital in Mufulira. After doing all the tests, the child was positive for malaria, malnourished, and had diarrhea.
When we reassembled later, they informed us that if we had not taken that action, that child was going to die within an hour. Within the same day, we put money together for some little clothes, food, and some milk. We kept on going there on a daily basis. The child was discharged after some three, four days later and the Rotarians went to pick that child and the mother
If I can save one life, that life would be a world to me, and possibly, that would be the world even to that child.’”
Q: Why can Rotarians take on malaria as the next big challenge?
A: “What Rotarians are doing right now is phenomenal. They have mobilized resources, our government is very appreciative. We have come this far but there is a lot more to do. What we’ve done is just a drop in the ocean. Malaria is a daily encounter. A daily problem and children are dying every four minutes in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It’s not something that we really need to relent on. With the global weather pattern changing, it’s becoming even much more challenging. We need a lot of Rotary clubs to come on board. They can start with small projects—impactful projects that will make a difference. What has been done in Zambia has been like a movement. We started small and been growing.”
Q: How do Community Health Workers change outcomes?
A: “You see the bicycles branded Malaria Partners Zambia with the Rotary logo… Community Health Workers traversing large pieces of land to diagnose, treat, and refer — not just malaria, but also diarrhea diseases.
If there’s no transport, the bicycles equip them with a present ambulance. This is why malnutrition, diarrhea, and pneumonia has now been incorporated together with the malaria aspect of the project [Rotary Healthy Communities Challenge].
The impact, especially the strategy of training the Community Health Workers, is that the communities themselves are the ones that select the people to be trained. Each CHW can attend to about 500 people.
They do this on a volunteer basis. They are called doctors by community members because they are the ones that are bringing the health care closer to their doorsteps. In that way, the community saves money in terms of transport costs. They can quickly get healed and start doing work in their fields. The children can easily go back to school. Health facilities can attend to the critical patients. From the economic side, the government is actually benefiting. The intervention of training these [CHWs] actually cuts off that cost, thereby there’s a lot of benefits that goes with the projects that we’re undertaking here.”
Q: Why does community education on malaria matter?
A: “One child, at the age of six, suffered a bout of malaria. He was admitted and they realized they needed to do some other tests using the spine. They explained the procedure to the mother. In the morning, the mother discharged the son. She snuck out with the child, and she started moving from one witch doctor to another. Until the child got vegetative. The mother had to start bathing the child, feeding, everything. When he was 19, she was trying to feed him porridge. Somehow, the boy got choked, she quickly rushed but the child was pronounced dead.
Now the needs are still very real. If the mother didn’t have certain beliefs or ideas, she would not have discharged that child. Suppose we had Community Health Workers in that area. Chances are that this child would have been saved. it’s a wake-up call, we need to accelerate fighting some of these myths. Malaria is real and it’s killing our children every four minutes.”
Q: What do these malaria projects mean to you and what have you seen change?
A: “These things really have had a lot of impact on me, and they do mean a lot to me. The benefits that communities have had, and also on the part of government.
On the part of Rotarians, it has given us the fulfillment. It also has had an amplification of what Rotary’s work is. Some of the areas to go to are so impassable, it changes you. You tend to look at it and say, ‘I’m so privileged, but what about the other person?’
This has given me an opportunity to widen my horizon, to appreciate Rotarians that have taken their time to mobilize resources for people that they will never even see, but they will have changed their lives. When we started off, it was just in Zambia. But our colleagues picked up from us—Uganda, Zimbabwe, West Africa. they are now actively participating in the malaria projects. It’s a very good journey and very, very heartwarming.”
Q: Your message to Rotarians and supporters everywhere.
A: “My message to Rotarians in the US, Seattle, Tacoma, and all other clubs, thank you for living the [Rotary International] Service Above Self motto.
To the wider Rotary family, I would like us to hold hands. This is the time to hold hands and try to amplify the efforts that we’ve done. Let us increase on the momentum. Please let’s hold hands. This is a call to duty for us now. Together we can actually eradicate malaria.Thank you.”