Working on this project was one of the most meaningful chapters in my career. Being on the USAID side allowed me to collaborate with people from Tanzania, Mozambique, Belgium, and the United States, each with different perspectives, realities, and hopes for what better healthcare could look like. Bringing all these voices together wasn’t always easy, but it taught me what true co-creation feels like in environments where every decision can change someone’s life. Introducing the idea of using rats for medical diagnostics was, honestly, a challenge. It was unconventional, unfamiliar, and at times difficult for stakeholders to imagine. I spent months pitching an idea that sounded “too different” and sometimes even “too strange” to be taken seriously. But once we shifted our communication strategy, listened deeply to each audience, and shaped the story around their concerns, the doors that once felt closed began to open. That experience taught me that innovations don’t fail because they lack value; they fail because the story around them doesn’t meet people where they are. Receiving a U.S. Government Award for this work was an honour, but the real reward was witnessing communities trust this solution and seeing patients get diagnosed sooner because of it. This project reminded me why I chose service design: to connect unlikely ideas, unlikely partners, and unlikely solutions and help them become real, human, and impactful.