Kisakye knew something in her body had gone terribly wrong. She had been sick for a long time, suffering much pain, uncertainty, and fear. She sat anxiously in her doctor’s office, her hands fidgeting. The doctor appeared with a somber expression on his face and delivered the terrible news to Kisakye: she was suffering from Tuberculosis and HIV.

Madina, a single mother living in western Tajikistan, stared in disbelief at her injured hand. A sudden accident at the factory where she worked had cut it cleanly in half. While not a life-threatening injury, it signaled an immediate end to her factory job. With most blue-collar jobs in her country requiring two hands, Madina knew she would now struggle to feed her two children.