AmeriCares sends vital support and millions of dollars worth of lifesaving medicines and medical supplies to Malawi each year, working closely with our local partner, Malamulo Seventh Day Adventist Hospital. The hospital regularly receives medical aid to support routine health services and to help patients with tuberculosis, malaria, and many other serious health conditions. In addition AmeriCares works with the hospital and other partners to fight malnutrition and to help in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Snapshot of Malawi

Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries. Access to health care is very limited due in part to a largely rural population and few financial resources. Of its 13.2 million people, 85% live in rural areas where subsistence farming is their primary of income.

• Mortality rates for children and adults are staggeringly high.
• HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death in Malawi; 14% of people, on average, are infected.
• The number of women who die in childbirth has tripled since 1990, and is one of the highest rates in the world.
• Over 40% of the children under the age of five are moderately to severely stunted from malnutrition.

See images of the people you are helping in Malawi

In 2003, AmeriCares constructed a therapeutic feeding center for the Malamulo Hospital to help address the continuing health care and food crisis.

AmeriCares delivered over $6 million worth of medicines, medical supplies, and nutritional supplements in 2007 and 2008 alone. AmeriCares is committed to continuing medical aid deliveries and has expanded initiatives to help battle Malawi's AIDS crisis.

A devastating drought sparked the 2002-2003 famine. During that time, one in three Malawian children died before they reached their 5th birthday. As the famine spread throughout Southern Africa, AmeriCares launched a massive humanitarian aid and disaster relief effort to deliver medicines and nutritional supplements to hospitals and clinics in the region.

Nutrition

The Malamulo Therapeutic Feeding Center, established in 2003, is a 50-bed in-patient facility providing life-saving nutritional rehabilitation for hundreds of severely malnourished children. The center provides essential care for victims of Malawi's recurrent food crises in the Malamulo catchment area. AmeriCares continues to assist the center with both financial support and supplies. In 2007, AmeriCares awarded a grant to Malamulo in continued support of the Centre, and additionally the Home Based Care program for people living with HIV/AIDS.

AmeriCares has also distributed Meal Packs donated by XANGO to help significantly reduce health risks associated with malnutrition. These meal packs contain many essential nutrients needed for a healthy diet and represent a nutritional supplement suitable for both children and adults.

Communicable Disease

Malawi has one of the highest adult prevalence rates in the world of HIV/AIDS. One person dies from HIV/AIDS every seven minutes and nearly 80,000 people lose their lives to the disease each year. In the southern districts, including Thyolo where Malamulo Hospital is located, the infection rates of HIV/AIDS are highest, and up to double the rates in the northern and central districts. In response, AmeriCares has increased assistance for Malamulo Hospital to help with their holistic approach to dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which includes educating people in the community about their health and promoting healthy lifestyles, support groups, medication management,and prevention as well as treatment programs.

Malamulo’s multi-faceted approach has worked. Among other victories over HIV/AIDS, the hospital boasts a 98% percent success rate in preventing mother to child transmission of the disease, which means that countless children will be spared a lifetime of illness and premature death.

See more about our work: Safeguarding Newborns Against AIDS

AmeriCares also donates medical products to qualified U.S. health care professionals who are traveling to Malawi to provide charitable medical care. Through this program, donated medicines and medical supplies reach impoverished and isolated communities where even basic medical care is inaccessible to the poor or often non-existent. AmeriCares donations cure infections, relieve pain, help patients manage chronic diseases and make life-changing surgeries possible.

Find out more about our Medical Outreach program