A volunteer and her notebook

Florence keeps a blue exercise book in her handbag. Inside are the names of every pregnant woman on her hill in Lwanda, the month each baby is due, and a small star next to anyone she is worried about.

She has been a village health team volunteer for nine years. She is not paid. She does it, she says, "because someone has to know".

The day before

When MANCO plans an outreach day in Lwanda, Florence is the first call. She walks the hill the day before, reminding people. She tells the starred women to come early.

When the nurses come, I already know who needs to see them first.

On the day she sits at the registration desk, matching faces to names in her book. When the day ends she stays to help pack the car.

What she asked for

At the end of our last outreach day, we asked Florence what would help her most. She did not ask for money. She asked for training: what to look for in the first week after a birth, and when a fever in a newborn means go now.

That conversation became one of our causes.