TIME

THESE DRONES ARE SAVING LIVES

BY ARYN BAKER/KIGALI, RWANDA
Zipline technicians prepare and launch a drone in Muhanga

FOR SEVERAL DAYS, DELPHINE TWESE HAMWE’S 2-year-old daughter Ghislane had been screeching in pain as fever wracked her tiny body. A nurse at the local clinic in central Rwanda told her that an acute form of malaria was attacking her daughter’s red blood cells. There was nothing the clinic could do to save her life, so they called an ambulance. But by the time mother and child arrived at the district hospital in Kabgayi, Ghislane had stopped moving. “We arrived too late,” Hamwe says. “There was no sign of life. I thought she was dead.” The nurses offered a blood transfusion as a last resort. Hamwe, numb and distracted, agreed. She was already on her phone, messaging the

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