Malawi’s massive budget deficit has hit the health system hard. In addition, international donors have withheld budget support since 2014 due to corruption scandals.

In Nsanje district, we support the severely underfunded district management team in running a fully decentralised HIV and tuberculosis (TB) programme that includes infants newly diagnosed with HIV. We also support in providing care for patients with advanced HIV in the district hospital, and healthcare for truck drivers and sex workers.

We are also developing a comprehensive programme to screen, diagnose and treat cervical cancer, which accounts for 40 per cent of all cancers among women in Malawi and kills an estimated 2,314 a year.

In late March 2019, extremely heavy rains in lower Shire River districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje, in Malawi’s far south, were compounded by further rains from Cyclone Idai. We launched an immediate response, including mobile medical clinics and water and sanitation activities.