So here starts the journey to writing more and sharing my thoughts on various issues… — nervous. | by Rumbi Mtsambiwa

5 min readApr 29, 2021

I took this picture in Musanze, Rwanda 2020. Overlooking the twin lakes.

So here starts the journey to writing more and sharing my thoughts on various issues… — nervous.

For years I have been wanting to do this but between life/time it just became one of those things that fell off the radar 😐…nonetheless recently I got some inspiration 🎉

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to be a Patron for Beatrice’s Medical Fund — which I agreed to. Naturally, I started to think about the best way to get people involved with this cause and my thoughts led me to a quote I ran into a couple of years ago in my career “Storytelling and fundraising are both, at the core, about empathy”.

I decided to write a story on why I am a Patron of Beatrice’s Medical Fund and I hope this inspires you to donate or share the story.

Thank you.

— Originally written 12 April 2021 —

I relocated back to the African continent 5 years ago and in most parts, it has been a very beautiful journey. This journey has been made extra beautiful by the multitudes of people that entered my life and allowed me into their lives whilst adding magic to society which has resulted in having such amazing friends and family all over the African continent.

One of those is Sylvia Makario — most of you know her as a co-host on the 55 Safe Spaces podcast (watch out for season 2 coming soon!) where we work to amplify the great work African women are doing in this world, discuss issues about women, empower future generations and create an environment of ease of networking and collaboration for the betterment of the African continent.

This baby of ours would’ve never been born without the friendship we’ve built over the years and our shared values in pan-Africanism and power in the community. Others may know her as a co-founder of Hepta Analytics (also home to Hepta Pay — one of my favourite services!!) but to me, she is all those things but most importantly, my friend.

The thing about being well-travelled young women and proudly African is that you start to realise that there are problems in African countries, in the USA, in the UK — gosh there are just so many problems that need solutions everywhere!

But….there are problems that do not discriminate on where you are from, who you are or what money you have and affects us all globally — COVID 19 comes to mind and we all know how that story goes (I’ll bring this point up again soon).

Some problems can only be solved with collaboration on a global level and one of those is CANCER — yes, it is a global health issue that is yet to be resolved.

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020. To put this into perspective: As of today 12 April 2021, 2.94 million people have died from COVID-19. (I hope you can see how cancer is a global health issue)

Global health issues require global collaboration to figure out solutions. As we have seen with COVID-19 and vaccinations, global citizens, global public health experts, and global leaders are still on an ongoing journey.

“It is bad to have cancer and worse to have cancer if you are poor. The gap between rich and poor, highly educated and less educated and the North-South divide is substantial and continuing to grow. Radical solutions are urgently needed: the status quo is not an appropriate response to the current situation. Recognising that no single government or source of philanthropy has the means to solve this problem, new models are needed to cope with and improve this situation.” (1)

However, as we have also seen, the beautiful continent of Africa is still scrambling for vaccinations. This is to no fault to our leaders (well, not all blame falls on them), because ultimately when something is scarce countries with more resources will always be ahead in acquiring things first (even more than they need) and there is this very big issue of pharmaceutical companies and intellectual property that do not make the level playing field any easier for our leaders. — Global health is actually so political, it is even stressing me out pondering as I write this.

Cancer is just horrible! I think most of us know a friend or family member that has won the battle or lost the battle in all corners of the world and it’s easy to forget how we still have a long way to go until we find great solutions that work for all of us globally. It is a global issue.

Many parts of the world have made good advancement in cancer research, diagnosis and treatment, however, many parts of the world are still lagging and the continent of Africa is one of those parts. And as mentioned, global health is actually political and requires large investments (I am sharing an article link at the end that I find insightful).

A couple of months ago, we learned that our mum Beatrice is battling cancer. Our mum has educated generations, empowered generations, raised leaders, and always provided food and shelter to the most vulnerable in Kenya.

Our mum also gave birth and raised my beautiful friend Sylvia.

It is in this regard, that I humbly ask you to help us reach our target to raise funds to ensure our mum can go and get the best medical treatment in India (as it is miles ahead in infrastructure, the know-how of treatment and cost) when it comes to cancer treatment.

We have exhausted all avenues and at this point, it really is about where we can get the best infrastructure for treatment and at a not-so-crazy price. When one compares options on the continent e.g. Kenya and South Africa, the 2017 Cancer Medicines Report highlighted a year’s supply of cancer medicine, lenalidomide, was less than R32000 (approx £1,600) in India, but cost R882000 (approx £44,100) in South Africa.

Sadly, we have to go to India (when given green light by doctors in India on COVID) to ensure our mum Beatrice gets the best medical treatment as our mum and all her global children (including me) would’ve most loved this battle to be fought together in Kenya or within the continent on our beautiful African soil.

Don’t forget to read the article at the end — I hope you will understand our rationale better :)

I acknowledge we are in a global pandemic and it has been difficult for us all, so no amount is too small and also just sharing this will go such a long way!

Please donate to Beatrice’s Cancer Medical fund here.

Thank you, Tinotenda, Asante

Ethos:

“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. ~ African proverb”. As we all help each other one patient at a time, we are making strides in building research and knowledge of cancer that will one day translate to a cure for all cancers.

As promised the article I was referring to is here.

In addition, some additional reads if my thoughts got you inquisitive:

Written by Rumbi Mtsambiwa

No responses yet