It’s a great day when you hear a “thank you,” but it’s a wonderful day when you hear “there’s something you have done to save a life.” As all field days start quite similarly for many community health workers (CHWs), one day it started differently for CHW Kiirya Aidah. With a divergence from some of her daily routines comes a story of how she helped save a young woman and her pregnancy.

Ruth Mununuzi is a teenager who became pregnant and had no partner to offer health-related or moral support. As a young woman who felt abandoned, Rose felt she had no available avenue for pregnancy advice when she started having pregnancy complications. Ruth was afraid to go to the hospital alone, and instead reached out to CHW Aidah for help.

Graciously and without judgment, CHW Aidah listened to Rose’s plight and she personally offered to accompany her to the hospital. Though CHW Aidah could not treat her condition personally, she knew that government hospitals were the answer, as they offer free treatment and specialists for such cases. Kiirya Aidah accompanied and helped Rose through the process of treating her complication.

To this day, both Rose and her family are thankful and grateful to CHW Aidah for her selflessness and actions to save both Rose and her baby. Instead of harboring judgment or lecturing Rose, CHW Aidah simply encouraged her during her treatment process, offering her shoulder and lending her ear to this young woman.

It’s the little things that we do which make a difference in people’s lives.