“We talked about policies, hardships and political instability within a country, but I was struck by how we didn’t discuss the well-being of the people who were living there,” said Limbong. “How were communities doing during these times of war, natural disasters and other atrocities?,” she wondered.

It was this desire to understand the people and root causes of issues that led the Louisville native and to study public health. 

Limbong, who will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in public health in May 2026, explored the global interconnectivity of cultures when she embarked on a month-long project in the African country of Malawi this past summer. This opportunity was led by Rochelle Holm of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute.

According to the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO), Malawi’s economy is largely agricultural with more than 80 percent of the population dependent on farming. While this supports livelihoods for millions, Malawi is vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters. Unsafe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene are concerns for much of the population.

In Malawi, Limbong assisted with nutrition research by surveying hundreds of Malawian university students and staff. The aim was to see if dietary indicators can be detected in wastewater and environmental surveillance, and how that compared to what people reported. She explored her interest in food insecurity by visiting a coffee planters’ co-op and participating in a grassroots feeding program for vulnerable community members.

The ‘warm heart of Africa’: Beyond the stereotypes

Malawi is often described through a narrow lens defined primarily by economic hardship. While poverty is a reality for many, Limbong said that is not the full story. Approaching Malawi with the intention of learning from local communities, Limbong focused on listening to resident voices. Through conversations with Malawians, she began to see how limiting the dominant narrative can be.

“Malawians are resilient, brilliant, and capable,” she reflected. “They are doing their best to provide for their families and are innovative in the ways that they can be.” For Limbong, it was essential not to reduce people to their struggles alone. “I want to make sure we don’t forget people’s humanity,” she said.

In the country known as “the warm heart of Africa,” Limbong was particularly struck by the communal nature of Malawian culture. Almost every evening, she heard large groups of people gathered together singing. These moments reflected more than music. “It speaks to the community-centric nature of the people,” she explained. “I think it’s important to be fully immersed, take time to hear people’s life experiences, and to share those stories from their perspective.”

Global citizenry

Upon graduation in May, Limbong plans to continue public health at UofL and pursue a master’s degree to better understand where her gifts align with the needs of the community.

Limbong said her Malawi experience deepened her understanding of global humanitarian work as both meaningful and demanding, “This is important work and hard work,” she said. “The experience helped me examine how my own contributions can fit into the broader picture of global health.”

For Limbong, what resonated from her experience was a sense of collective humanity. “While our realities might be different, they impact one another,” she said. “We are all connected on this shared earth, and that is something I will take with me wherever I go next and whatever I end up doing.”

To help fill the needs, University of Louisville faculty members joined forces with Louisville nonprofit earlier this year to learn the most critical needs, then pack and deliver a 40-foot shipping container with those supplies to health care workers and researchers in Malawi.

The project originated with Rochelle Holm, a UofL associate professor with the who is conducting wastewater-based epidemiology in the city of Blantyre, Malawi, and Bethany Hodge, director of the in the UofL School of Medicine. When Hodge traveled to the country in 2023 to explore learning and service opportunities for UofL medical students in the Distinction in Global Health track, she took note of specific needs in the Malawi hospitals she visited.

“Whenever I am walking through a clinical site overseas or seeing other kinds of work going on, I am mentally taking inventory of all the things the doctors, nurses and staff are saying would facilitate their work,” said Hodge, who also is a board member of SOS, which recovers and redistributes surplus medical supplies that otherwise would go into landfills. “There were enough things on their lists that I knew SOS had in their warehouse that I wanted to connect the two entities once I got home to see if the SOS program could be part of filling the needs.”

Holm is permanently based in Malawi, where her research involves regular sampling of wastewater from two hospitals as well as community pit latrines to monitor infectious disease trends and outbreaks. The work requires supplies that are , specifically consumable items such as pipettes, personal protective equipment and laboratory analysis supplies. Holm also asked her research and hospital collaborators about their most critical needs.

Hodge relayed the hospitals’ and Holm’s needs to SOS, which assembled the items and organized a shipment that included durable medical equipment, surgical and consumable medical supplies for area hospitals, along with the research supplies for Holm’s work.

The materials, valued at $380,077, were packed in the container and departed Louisville in late May. The shipment arrived in Malawi on Sep. 20.

“The supplies we received from SOS are difficult to obtain in country, so this shipment is extremely valuable,” Holm said. “It will allow us to continue testing for pathogens circulating in the community with less concern about running out of materials for our research, as well as assisting the sampling sites with meeting critical supply needs to support health care delivery.”

The Malawi University of Science and Technology, which collaborates with Holm on the wastewater research, and its hospital partners received a portion of the shipment.

“As a university, we really appreciate the donation from SOS, which has come at the right time when the university is strengthening its outreach aspect,” said Petros Chigwechokha, head of Malawi University’s Department of Biological Sciences. “The donation will be extended to the university’s key partners, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and Thyolo District Hospital, where they will fill a big gap in equipment and consumables and ultimately strengthen health delivery services.”

Another segment of the shipment went to a heath care facility in southern Malawi supported by Bridge Kids International, a Louisville-based group that works locally and abroad to connect children to their African heritage culture and build relationships between Africans and African Americans.