Submitted by Anso Thom and Lungi Langa Tantaswa is 32 years old and lives in Pelindaba, in Bloemfontein’s Mangaung township. She tested HIV positive in October 2008 at National Hospital in Bloemfontein, with a CD4 count of 484. Her health swiftly deteriorated. “I had been coughing more often than usual and suffering from diarrhoea. I [...]

When we spoke to Margaret Fondo, a primary school teacher in Takaungu sub-location in Coast Province, she was deeply concerned about the availability of medicines in the area. As a teacher, the 44 year-old mother had a medical allowance which paid for most of the treatment that Margaret and her family of four needed. However, [...]

Onyango Wambia is a small-scale farmer from Lela village in Kisumu district, in the western part of Kenya. Although Onyango is diabetic, he rarely uses medicine because he cannot afford to buy the prescribed regimen. How does he then manage his condition? “This is what I use for diabetes,” he says peeling off a clove [...]

A mother of three and living on a monthly allowance earned from voluntary work in Nairobi, 28-year-old Winnie Akinyi’s monthly income was not enough to enable her to make an outright payment for treatment. This was not an uncommon problem for Akinyi or those living within her neighbourhood. That is why, in early 2007, she [...]