Given, pictured on the right in this photo from our training day at Muchochoma, wasn't at training class today. The one woman who comes super early and stays way past ending time didn't show up. When asked where she was, we found out that Given has been in the hospital with a terrible case of malaria. Not just a mosquito bite or a fever, but the very same illness that stole the lives of Elina and Margret's husbands, and countless others in Zambia. So it's extra personal and extra difficult for us. But this time is so different.

Margret and Elina's husbands passed because they couldn't afford the one pill used to cure their cases of malaria. One pill. One pill that makes the ill even more ill for a short while. But one life-saving pill.

But this time is different, because this time Given has hope. It sounds like she'll be okay. Why? Given used the money she earned from the production of Chikondi bracelets to buy that one pill to save her life. She'll be okay, and she'll live to tell the story of how HOPE has saved her life.

We hoped we'd have an impact in the Ng'ombe community and in the lives of our women, but we didn't know that this simple model of hope through love from empowerment and education would save a life this tangibly.

So when you purchase a bracelet, one that could be made by Given, know that that bracelet has saved her life. You have helped to save her from the biggest killer in Zambia. Zikomo.