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"My husband was against contraceptive," recalls Aïssa*. She recently gave birth to triplets. She has four older children, the youngest barely two years old. "Since the triplets, the financial burden has grown so much that it's been easier to persuade him," she adds.

Challenged by high cholesterol levels and hypertension, and later diabetes, 58-year-old Mola Admassie says his life has significantly changed thanks to the availability of noncommunicable disease services at the health centre 600 metres from his home.

Namudu Kareen*, 30, an anti-tobacco advocate in Uganda, was forced to face up to the impact of smoking on her health when her damaged lungs could not supply the necessary oxygen she needed after undergoing surgery in 2020. She needed a ventilator, a machine to help her breathe. The eldest of five children, she stopped smoking a year later and committed to encouraging others to follow suit.

In Guinea, around 30 health centres offer free cervical cancer screening services, giving thousands of women the chance of early detection of the disease, and appropriate treatment.

Attending a health centre was an “unattainable luxury” after the Batsirai and Emnati cyclones hit Madagascar’s south-eastern Vatovavy region in February 2022, cutting off any access to care for Toky Rabemaharo and his community.