A year after the United States, under President Donald Trump, cut funding to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Malawi’s healthcare system is facing severe setbacks, undoing decades of progress in combating HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and reproductive health services.
The Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM), a key non-governmental organization providing healthcare in rural and remote areas, has been forced to suspend its mobile clinics, which served as the primary healthcare link for many villages.
“We had two big grants that were supporting our work, particularly in areas where there were no other service providers,” said Donald Makwakwa, FPAM’s Executive Director.
“We are likely to lose out on all the successes that we have registered over the years.”
Residents have already felt the impact. Maureen Maseko, from a village previously served by FPAM, said that suspending services led to a spike in unplanned pregnancies, particularly among young girls.
“I know of nearly 25 girls in my village who got pregnant when FPAM suspended its services last year,” she said.
“Now that it has resumed, I’m confident cases of early pregnancies will drop because FPAM provides contraceptives and condoms to help youth continue their education.”
The cuts have also hit HIV treatment programs hard. More than one million Malawians live with HIV, and the United States had previously funded around 60 percent of HIV treatment programs. Patients like Chisomo Nkwanga, an HIV-positive resident of Mzuzu, described losing access to life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART) as a devastating blow.
“The healthcare worker shouted at me in front of others, saying, ‘You are now starting to patronise our hospitals because the whites who supported your evil behaviour have stopped?'” he recounted.
“I gave up. I am a living dead.”
Experts warn that Malawi’s setback is part of a broader global health crisis, with hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths linked to the dismantling of US foreign aid during the Trump administration.
As FPAM resumes its operations, hope remains that reproductive health services and HIV care can be restored, but the long-term impact of the funding cuts will take years to reverse.
