During our 6-week research trip in Malawi, we studied the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) throughout the central and southern regions, but focused primarily on understanding the needs and responses of individuals and communities in this desolate district.

Daily, we visited men such as Innocent, too thin to walk without assistance, and watched as flies fed on the pus that oozed from his ears, and stared into his eyes, now vacant with the knowledge that nothing more could be done. We talked to others living in homes no larger than our small bathroom, without toilets, or even pit latrines to use when their chronic diarrhea set in.

We spoke with women such as Thresa, who confided that her husband was cheating on her, that she lay awake each night wondering where he was and what he was doing. Thresa and women like her know they are at risk for acquiring HIV, but have no power to refuse their husband’s sexual advances.

And most disheartening was when we met children such as 9-year-old Caroline, who inherited a disease that left her body covered in spots (Kaposi’s sarcoma), her lips peeling with sores, and left her too weak to walk to the school where she loved reading poetry and writing creative stories with her sister.

These are just a few of the individuals, stories, and lives that drive us to move forward; that remind us we are blessed; that leave us thoughtful about our own lives; and that give us the will to wake each day, and say “No more.”