She's a former president, a Nobel laureate — and still on a mission at age 83

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/04/25/ [login to see] /malaria-is-making-a-comeback-africas-iron-lady-is-out-to-stop-it
In 2006, she became the first democratically elected women leader of an African country – more than a decade before the U.S. celebrated its first female ... vice president.

She is a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. When she got the call, she recalls with bemusement that she was in the middle of a campaign trek on a very bad road. Her first response: Why?

She is the legendary Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. And at 83 she is not ready to retire. On a visit to Washington, D.C., on Monday she talked about her latest mission – getting more money for the fight against malaria – and highlights of her storied life.

Sirleaf's trip seeking support for the fight against malaria comes at a critical time. There were 241 million cases of malaria in 2020, the most recent year for which data are available, up from 227 million cases the year before. Deaths increased, too. The pandemic shoulders much of the blame for hindering access to health care.