Under an old mango tree in the heart of a small village in Uganda, women and children gather around, listening intently to a voice emanating from a small speaker: "What are the symptoms of Mpox? How can you protect yourself?" The voice calmly and clearly explains what many here did not know until now. These vital health messages come from audio files made accessible via a QR code attached to the tree trunk—just a quick scan with a smartphone, and people immediately gain access to crucial health knowledge.

Schistosomiasis, also called bilharzia, is an infectious disease that is caused by parasitic worms. Globally, more than 200 million people have been impacted by this disease. The causative agent lives in freshwater snails which eventually enter the water of rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds. People are affected by the parasite via skin contact - the parasite penetrates into the skin of people. Human diseases mostly occur with Schistosoma mansoni, S. japonicum, or S. haematobium. 

Onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, is an infectious disease that is caused by the parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus. The infection is transmitted by Simulium blackflies through a bite. It is the second leading infectious disease that results in vision loss. Unlike other diseases, this disease requires repeated bites for an infection to happen. The disease is also called river blindness because the fly breeds in streams and rivers and leads to vision loss. Onchocerciasis is prevailing in remote rural areas which makes those who live or work in these areas more at risk.

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of communicable diseases and caused by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites that continuously affect more than 1 billion people globally. Despite ongoing measures, NTDs are still prevalent in vulnerable and low-income countries such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. NTDs are comprised of 20 different medical diseases and mostly target women and children of susceptible communities.

I am thrilled to be a part of an organization that believes in gender equality and spreading health education to vulnerable communities in every possible way.

Because of women’s unique biological characteristics and unequal cultural and social status, they are exposed to various reproductive and maternal health problems. In the past decades, the health situation of Sub-Saharan African women has improved significantly but it still lags behind that of other countries. For example, during the period from 2000 to 2017, Sub-Saharan Africa achieved a reduction of 39 percent of maternal mortality (from 870 to 533 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births). However, it still accounts for 68 percent of all maternal deaths per year worldwide (Unicef Data 2020).

As in many other developing countries, there are hardly any trained professionals for mental health care in Rwanda. Especially for people living in poverty or far away from urban centres, there is therefore no or hardly any suitable help. As a rule, many mentally ill people cannot be adequately supported.

Leprosy is still a thing. The number of new cases reported globally to the World Health Organization in 2019 was more than 200,000. An estimated 2 to 3 million people are living with leprosy-related disabilities globally. In 2019, the countries with the highest number of new diagnoses were India, Brazil, and Indonesia. Over half of all new cases of leprosy are diagnosed in India, which remains home to a third of the world’s poor, a group disproportionately affected by the disease.