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LILONGWE, Malawi – Malawi Defence Force Lt. Col. Takondwa Itaye has always known what she wanted.
Her calling into the medical field started in primary school and continued throughout high school.
However, Itaye’s interest in medicine began with her mother, whom she describes as her role model.
“My mother was a nurse. She loved her job and carried herself with so much grace and confidence. I wanted to be like her,” said Itaye.
At first, she told her mother she wanted to be a nurse, but her mother encouraged her to pursue medicine instead. Following her advice, Itaye finished medical school in 2005. Originally interested in pediatrics, she turned a corner when her calling steered her towards surgery, and after an internship, she joined a general surgery department in 2008.
“If you choose a career such as medicine, it's a long career, and as a woman, you still have to find those gaps to get married, have children, and raise them,” Itaye said. “It’s not an easy thing to do, you make a lot of sacrifices. Most people might get scared before they even try it, but I say to go for it.”
Itaye does not shy away from a challenge.
After over a decade of her life in the medical field, she wanted to do something different, so, three years ago, she joined the Malawi Defence Force (MDF).
“I felt like I reached that bar where you don’t feel challenged enough. I thought I could offer my services a lot more in the military,” Itaye said.
Itaye entered the MDF as an officer, but still took the same 11-week basic training course as everyone else. She shared that she loved being taken out of her comfort zone, pushing the limitations of what she thought she could do.
“I’d sleep out in the bushes all night and it was really something,” Itaye said with a smile. “I never knew I would be able to do things like that.”
Itaye has already accomplished a lot in her short tenure in the military. Attaining such a higher rank, she spent two of her three years deployed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as part of the MDF peacekeeping mission.
She was the lead in developing the first surgical unit ever in the DRC. After spending 2021 doing major planning and paperwork, construction finally broke ground in January 2022.
By May, Itaye’s work resulted in a fully functional light surgical module.
“This was a huge achievement for myself and the MDF. Even to be given the role is a big thing. People trust me and I feel like all my hard work has paid off,” she said.
After returning home, her work as the lead of the general surgery department for the MDF continued. As the first female lead, she said she feels a sense of pride, but it does not come without its challenges.
“At the time I joined the [civilian] surgery department, I was the only female,” she explained. “In this male dominated [medical] field, the challenge you get is exciting to me, even within the mostly male military as well. The only difference is that I am a woman. But I can deliver just as a man can.”
Her hard work does not go unnoticed and Itaye says she truly loves her job within the MDF. She looks forward to going to work daily.
Recently, she was invited to participate in a U.S. and Malawi civil-military operations engagement in Malawi. She said the training with the American troops shed light on gaps they had within their ranks in the medical field.
“We all got reminded that we all need to go back to the basics sometimes, no matter how long you have been in this field or the military,” said Itaye. “It doesn't matter your role within it, when medical services are needed, we all need to be on the same page with the service we can provide at the most basic level.”
She also shared that having an outside perspective helped identify which people needed the most attention within the medical services staff.
Itaye added that she and her team look forward to further exchanges with U.S. Army civil affairs teams. For now, she enjoys being home and does not know when she will return to the DRC.
Itaye has some encouraging advice for others who might want to join the medical field or even the military.
“Even though we say the sky's the limit, man has been to the moon, so there is no limit. You never know what you are capable of unless you try it,” she concluded.
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About MDF
MDF soldiers conduct year-long United Nations (UN) peace-keeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Malawi is the 25th largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping. Since 1994, Malawi has contributed military and police personnel to UN peace-keeping operations in Abyei, the DRC, Ivory Coast, Kosovo, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan [Darfur], South Sudan and Western Sahara.
About SETAF-AF
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