Nokuthaba Dlamini
Victoria Falls—President Donald Trump’s abrupt suspension of foreign aid has left hundreds of women and children who were dependent on support from a US-funded programme in Matabeleland North stranded.

In January, Trump’s new administration suspended US-funded projects worldwide, including those providing lifesaving care for millions of people, saying it wanted to review their effectiveness.

The programmes were suspended for 90 days pending review, but indications are that most of them would be scrapped permanently.

The Amalima Loko programme, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that was expected to run between 2020 and 2027, was designed to improve food security.

In the last four years, the programme provided a vital lifeline, distributing nutritious porridge to children under two, in addition to expecting and lactating mothers.

Village health workers, social focal persons and local councillors implemented the programme, which significantly reduced malnutrition rates in the province.

Khathazile Ndebele, a village health worker from Hlanganani Village in Hwange, said the programme had transformed lives in the community and its abrupt suspension was a serious threat to people’s survival.

“We’re devastated by the news,” Ndebele said. “The Amalima Loko project was helpful to our communities. Since we started working with Amalima in 2021, the children were steadily gaining weight. For expecting mothers, cases of miscarriages and still births were no longer a common occurrence, so with their withdrawal, we feel exposed.”

Ndebele feared that cases of malnutrition among children would increase because of perennial food shortages in Hwange as a result of droughts and a poorly performing economy.

“Those were good years for me because expecting mothers would come to us to register and they would get their five and half kilogrammes of porridge plus one and a half litres of cooking oil,” she said.

“I am saddened because the programme had reduced cases of kwashiorkor and underweight among children while miscarriages were also gone down,” added Ndebele.

Kachechete ward councillor, Given Moyo, echoed Ndebele’s sentiments, saying the USAID supported programme was the only source of aid for the community as the government was failing to respond to food shortages.

“The Amalima Loko programme was a beacon of hope for our community. We had seen a significant reduction in malnutrition cases since its inception,” Moyo said.

“We are worried that without it, we’ll see a resurgence of malnutrition-related illnesses. I grew up here and we have never seen any aid from the government of this kind and we know that there will not be any action from the government to help these communities and cases of underweight and poor diet will rise again,” added Moyo.

According to the 2024 Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) Rural Livelihoods Assessment, most people in this province lack a balanced diet.

The report notes that 93.2 percent consume cereals on a daily basis but lacking vital proteins such as eggs that are consumed by a mere 3.5 percent and fruits by only 13 percent of the total population in the seven districts.

The Amalima Loko programme went beyond nutrition, providing health education and vital information on childcare, hygiene, and sanitation.

“We learned so much from the program,” said Buhlebendalo Sibanda, a local mother, adding:

“We learned how to prepare nutritious meals, how to keep our children clean, and how to prevent illnesses. It’s not just about the porridge; it’s about the knowledge and skills we gained.”

Onia Mudenda from Binga’s Manzasiya Village shared a personal story of how the programme saved her son from kwashiorkor.

“I did not know that he had kwashiorkor. I remember taking him to the village health worker for our routine scaling and he weighed less than eight kilogrammes and they told me that I should take him to the hospital,” Mudenda said.

“His stomach was swollen and hard, this is was because of the drought situation at home, so we would eat anything to keep ourselves strong and that’s how he was affected.

“Then I used to live in Kadoma, and few weeks after relocating back home, they enrolled him into the programme and his health over the months improved and even now, he is still a healthy boy who is able to interact with others unlike before,” she added.

As the community comes to terms with the programme’s abrupt end, concerns that the gains made in efforts to reduce malnutrition in the province are mounting.

“We’re worried that without the programme, we’ll see a spike in malnutrition. We are calling on the government and international donors to step in and provide support. We can’t afford to lose the progress we’ve made,” said Mudenda.