Joseph brings care closer to home…

For 35-year-old Joseph, posted at the Mponda Village Clinic in the Mchinji District of Malawi, the experience of working as a local health worker strikes a deeply personal chord.

Like Joseph, health workers help to ensure that children stay healthy in a country where one in nine children dies before age 5. Joseph is sometimes referred to as “doctor” and receives great respect and appreciation from his community. Many families who once had to travel up to 25km to reach health facilities now travel no further than 1km to reach their village clinics at the home of local health workers. These families no longer have to pay for transportation to health facilities, no longer have to walk dangerous and long distances to health facilities, and no longer seek medicines at local shops – drugs which are often expired or not the correct treatment for the illness.

Despite progress, tragically we are still losing over 22,000 children under age 5 globally every day from largely preventable or treatable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. Frontline health workers, like Joseph, are often the difference between life and death for children and their families.

Thank you for supporting Joseph by helping to give him the knowledge and skills to assess and treat children in need!