It was 8:45 PM on the night of June 19, 2007 that I stepped off the BA flight into Nairobi from Washington DC via Amsterdam to bring ACAM’s goals and objectives more precisely in contact with Africa–finally, ACAM was ready to interact with African partners directly in order to advance the newly available and highly- effective interventions that can beat back malaria on this continent.

For those who continued to access my website: www:ACAMalaria.org , since my move, I thank you for your patience and diligence in contacting me despite this major hiatus in any updates on the website itself. The explanation for this “break” is simple; I no longer had access to my faithful webmaster who served me back in Washington DC . Only now have I located a reliable, talented replacement here in Nairobi , Kenya to close this communication gap and to continue with timely updates from ACAM.

No longer would I be making only intermittent visits; this was the move ACAM needed to make in order to be available full-time as a partner with governments, donors, NGOs, CBOs and FBOs to facilitate communities and households to create a MALARIA-FREE AFRICA. Besides, now there was major global advocacy and awareness that malaria was Africa ‘s number one killer of children — and there are community- friendly means available that can change this!

After living here in Africa for almost two years, my only regret is that I did not make this move earlier. Perhaps ACAM could have been “on the ground” from the very inception of the two major international donor -supported malaria program resources, namely, the Global Fund for AIDS, TB, and Malaria (GFATM) and the Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI). But then again, both programs had to go through their “startup” pains and program design revisions involving their innovative partnering mechanisms with the national African programs—all requiring a steep learning curve to cooperate and collaborate with the donors. Indeed, especially for the Global Fund, this meant major revisions in how the country recipients must align themselves with partners for planning and implementation– most notably with those organizations with community- based constituencies who are meant to be the ultimate recipients of the program benefits.

The lessons learned during my relatively short time here in Africa totally eclipse the decades of experience spent commuting from Washington DC to “where the rubber meets the road” in Africa. Living day-to-day with the people who truly understand the political realities, who daily struggle with the regular power and communication breakdowns, and yet patiently move forward with a grace that Africans instinctively show one another has been my valuable privilege. I still am reminded that my exposure here has been a limited one; there is still much to learn together.

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