“Of all the things that happened on our most recent trip to Malawi there is one moment when three lives crossed paths that I won’t easily forget,” recalls Richard (Dick) Stephens of the Malawi Project. “It was the day two boys stopped to talk while on their way to school on the outskirts of Thondwe. It was around 7:30 in the morning, and I met them on a path that intersects with the Namikango Maternity Hospital on one side and the Zomba road on the other. They were excited to talk with a visitor, and immediately stopped when they realized I would take time to talk with them.”
“As is often the case they wanted to know about me, about where I had come from, and what I was doing in Malawi. I briefly explained about the Malawi Project, and its various programs, and that I had come from America. This brought into focus a long explanation about what it is like in America. There is a deep sense of longing in this part of Africa to know about America. They look up to the ‘Europeans’ as they refer to all of us with European decent, and almost without exception all want to visit or live in America. They see it as the goal out of the poverty in which they find themselves mired.”
“I turned the attention to them and what they are doing and plan to do.”
“We are in school,”the one closest to me explained, “and we want to become doctors.”
“I complimented their goal, and after a few minutes of conversation it was time for them to leave. I watched them walk away down the path. In a nation with 13 million people, with a reported total of less than 100 Malawi doctors, I cannot imagine a nobler goal. But too, I know they will face critical threats to their health and survival if they go into the medical profession. They will have far too few protective measures to shield themselves from the diseases they are trying to treat. Too, they will feel the frustration with having unbelievable shortages of even the most basic medical supplies. As if that is not enough they won’t get paid very much, and there will be little chance of a foreseeable change in that status. As they walked on down the path I felt an urgency to get on with our mission. They didn’t ask for anything. They were on the way to do it themselves.”
“It would seem the least we can do by the time these two boys become doctors is to give the country the resources to change their destitute medical situation. I hope so, for the sake of these two boys, and 13 million other people.