Why would you like to be on the NCDA Board of Directors?

I would like to join the NCDA as I believe it is a valuable opportunity to be able to make a difference in the NCD community and the NCDA as a whole. As a person with lived experience, I feel the need to change lives of those living with NCDs like myself. I have valued the achievements made by NCDA since the first time I heard of the organisation in 2016, as such I feel that there needs to be adequate participation of people with lived experience in the organisation. I also believe that the NCDA is a model organisation that promotes the agenda of people with lived experience, that has a listening ear to our challenges and responds to them amicably and adequately. I would love to continue to serve in my capacity as a lived experience person to ensure that the NCDA continues and that no interference from external parties divert its agenda and purpose. I have spent the past couple of months in my tenure as a board member on temporal status and most of this time was spent in proving to my peers that as people with lived experience we are there because we also have capability. Now I would like to continue in making the necessary policies and programmes for the much needed change.

What makes you a good candidate for the lived experience sea on the NCDA Board of Directors? 

I have developed a lot of leadership skills in my time that are tuning to the needs of advocacy work, that create and build a face to the story while being able to make the necessary decisions and sacrifice. I am also blessed to have been trained in a number of areas by NCDA itself, I have also served and are serving in the Our Views Our voices committee. I have been able to gain the resect of both NCDA and people with lived experience and am currently in the perfect positioning to act as a bridge between NCDA and people with lived experience. I am also not afraid to speak the truth, and will do my best to ensure that in the policy making of NCDA there shall at no point any decision, policy or action be taken that undermines the value of people with lived experience. Most of all I believe and practice a leadership style of empathy and servanthood of which my time attached to the various activities with NCDA can attest to. I pledge to always put others in front of me and that also includes the millions with various NCDs in the world.

Biography

I am Chikhulupiliro Stanley Ng’ombe, from Malawi, an LMICs in the Southern part of Africa. At 8 years old I was diagnosed with Leukaemia and epilepsy diagnosis after 3 months into chemotherapy as a side effect. Though our medical facilities do not offer state of the art medical care, All in all, I never allowed the condition to conquer me and I always live a full and joyous life. Early in my treatment doctors noticed my ability to talk and encourage fellow patients of all ages (something I must have got from my late mum). The doctors would use me to talk to other cancer patients and later various conditions. I set up a non-profit organisation called Cancer Survivors Quest in 2011, which is patient centred. We support patients in reducing out of pocket expenses, though we are not donor funded. Later in 2016 together with a couple of organisations we set up an NCD Alliance in Malawi.