There was a mixed reaction from bystanders as the object slowly hovered back down to earth, kicking up small columns of dust as it landed. We were standing outside a health clinic in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, watching the inaugural launch of a small white drone. Malawian officials said a prayer to bless its virgin flight, and issued assurances that it was not powered by witchcraft. Some spectators cheered; others, afraid the drone might land on them, took shade next to tall maize plants, shielding their heads.
"I'm glad I know what it is," said Scholastic Billiard, who like many of the other women gathered at the clinic, was pregnant. "I would have thought it was a bomb coming to be delivered, or the start of a war." Instead, the custom-made drone is part of a UNICEF pilot program to fly around and deliver HIV tests and results.
Malawi has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world, with roughly 15 percent of adults carrying the virus. An estimated 170,000 children in the country are also HIV-positive, and young people between the ages of 15 and 18 account for half of new HIV infections. The death toll is tremendous—33,000 people in Malawi died of AIDS complications in 2014 alone, including 10,000 children, according to UNAIDS—in part because many people are undiagnosed or lack access to antiretroviral drugs.
"It's a good idea, as people will get their has beaten them all," she said.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it
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But Dombolo also worries that the hovering machines could be met with superstition. In Malawi–a country where three-quarters of the population believes in witchcraft, and where those accused of the practice are aggressively prosecuted—a drone landing in someone's garden could easily be read as "witchcraft or something satanic," she said.
According to a September report from the Malawi News Agency, there was quite a stir in Kasangu after a man spotted an alleged "witchcraft plane" crashing outside a home in the early hours of the morning. The claim prompted debate over whether or not the object was proof of witchcraft, and hundreds of people gathered at local police stations hoping to glimpse the black tube with two sticks.
"They will have to know what is flying on top of them, as now they will have that fear," said Daniel Nyerenda, a health officer at another mother-and-child HIV clinic in Malawi. The clinic where he works treats more than 350 patients, up from just seven in 2010, he said, and some of his patients have stopped making the hours-long walk to the clinic to pick up their antiretroviral drugs—a problem that UNICEF's drone program could remedy.
Photo by UNICEF/Bodole
To dispel witchcraft rumors surrounding the new HIV drones, UNICEF has been carrying out drone awareness campaigns in Malawi. Jim O' Sullivan, a pilot-turned-drone technician who works for Matternet, the California-based company that created the specialty HIV-testing drones, says that in communities included in the public education campaign, the reaction has been "heartwarming."
"The kids love it," he said. "When they see the vehicle take off they will often times cheer. We haven't noticed any fear of it."
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