Volunteering pays off for 54 year old jobless nurse

TALK about being found at the right place at the right time and 54-year old Mary Mwanza will perfectly fit in the saying.

Despite not being on government payroll, Mary is one the of scores of health workers doing their level best to save Cholera patients at the Heroes Stadium, which has been set aside as an isolation centre of the deadly epidemic.

Since breaking out last October, the diarrhoeal disease which renders the rear brakes of its sufferers completely useless has claimed more than 300 lives.

As President Hakainde Hichilema visited the hundreds of patients admitted to the Heroes Stadium, the Cholera centre yesterday, Mary decided to test the “When you see me just shout Bally, chi employment muli iwe” promise and it proved to be true.

After he commending and encouraging her to work hard, Mary who has been just a volunteer attached to Kanyama Level One Hospital and deployed at the Heroes Stadium told the touring President that she was jobless.

Immediately the President heard this, he directed that Mary be employed in the Ministry of Health.

Mary’s story is combination of hardwork, resilience and grace.

Many years after failing to complete her secondary education, She enrolled for adult education after which she studied nursing.

Unable to find a job, she volunteered her services to Kanyama Level One Hospital until she met the President yesterday.

Now, Mary’s name will grace a government payslip.

By Buumba Mwitumwa

Kalemba January 2024