Volunteer nurse, Liz Thomas, has written a story about her time volunteering with us. Her trip to Malawi and administering the malaria vaccine was a very special and emotional opportunity for Liz. Read her full story.
The story starts around 15 years ago. A young lad by the name of Harry travelled to Ghana with a charity. Harry was part of the driving team and during his stay he gave his malaria tablets away to other “more needy” people. He returned to the UK and became unwell and very sadly the hospital was unable to save him. He died from plasmodium falciparum.
His family were understandably devastated, and his mother Jo spent the next few years campaigning hard with the charity Malaria No More to raise awareness and support the development of a malaria vaccine. Jo travelled to the United States to visit the president in the White House. She travelled to Downing Street and met the Prime Minister too.
My daughter married Harry’s brother and so as a family this story has touched all of us. Harry was unable to be at their wedding and of course left a large gap which was acutely felt by everyone at the wedding. In memory of Harry, the couple raised a substantial amount of money for Malaria No More through their wedding gifts.
Malaria No More was focussing on helping to develop the malaria vaccine which I am so thrilled to see has now been rolled out to a number of African countries, Malawi being one of them.
This brings me to my volunteer trip with Ripple Africa. Whilst visiting Tukombo Health Clinic with Dan and Kaitlin we met up with Samson. He advised us that there was an outreach child vaccination clinic the following week and invited us to attend. The clinic was in the hills above Tukombo – about an hour and a half walk uphill, across many streams and through savannah grasses.
We set off just after 7am carrying our equipment and the resuscitation baby as we didn’t want to miss a teaching chance. The walk was very hot and very sweaty. Luckily, we took extra water with us and managed to drink a litre on the way up and a litre on the way down.
We arrived in the village absolutely drenched in sweat. I don’t think I have arrived anywhere looking in such a state, my hair was soaked and the sweat dripped down the side of my face.
We were greeted by at least twenty smiling and singing women with their babies. I discovered that many of these women had walked an hour in the other direction to get to us. The babies were weighed by the tree and Samson led some singing and also discussed methods of contraception with the women. This was all in the local dialect, Chitonga, so we were unable to completely understand what he was saying.
He introduced myself and my friend and fellow nurse Carol and we were able to show the women how to look after a baby if it was choking. The session went well and one of the little girls took an absolute fancy to the resuscitation baby. We apologised to the group that the baby was a mzungu (white) baby, but no-one seemed to mind. The little girl took the baby and immediately carried it around just like her mum would do wrapping it in the material and tying it to her back. It was such a lovely little moment.
Once all the weighing had been done it was time to start vaccinating. The malaria vaccine is now embedded in the national Malawi vaccine programme and the babies receive four doses starting at five months.
I was so excited to see that we had the vaccine with us. I was able to administer my first dose to a small baby. I felt so emotional and happy that I was able to do this. It felt as though we had come full circle. I knew my family at home would be so proud and I knew how much work Jo had put into raising awareness of the impact of malaria around the world. This little baby would at least have some protection. It felt so good that I was able to be a small part in the story.
I asked Carol to take a photo of this moment – which she gladly did. I sent the photo to Jo was so pleased to see the photograph. I think we were all an emotional wreck by the end of the day but it really was a very proud moment for me and something I can be very grateful for and a day that I will never forget.
We were also taken to see the hot springs which are very close to this village. It was absolutely fascinating to put your hand into very hot water and the stream next to it was cold. Quite extraordinary. The wonders of the natural world.
The walk back was equally hot, and we drank plenty of water. We were so glad that we had managed the challenge of the walk in the heat and had successfully vaccinated many babies for malaria and other diseases.
Whilst in Malawi we discovered that malaria is absolutely endemic amongst the communities. We visited just after the rainy season and the levels of disease are particularly high at that time of year. Nevertheless, it was quite shocking to see how normalised the diagnosis of malaria is. There is clearly still a long way to go.
I am so grateful to Ripple Africa for enabling this experience to happen.
If you want to find out more about volunteering with Ripple Africa, click here.