How cuts to USAID left rural Afghanistan without lifesaving clinics and nutrition support

# Overview It's been 18 months since the U.S. government began broad cuts to foreign aid that included dismantling USAID programs. In parts of rural Herat province, Afghanistan, the change has been immediate and visible: mobile clinics and feeding services that once reached remote mountain villages have stopped operating. Local residents report clinics no longer send ambulances, referral pathways to hospitals have become unreliable, and families face longer, costlier journeys for care.

# What aid provided and what stopped USAID-funded programs previously supported rural clinics, mobile health teams, and feeding services that treated malnutrition and common infections in mothers and children. After the funding reductions over the past two years, those services have disappeared in affected villages. The loss of these programs removed a primary health safety net for communities with limited roads, no local hospitals, and high poverty.

# On-the-ground consequences — case examples The reporting centers on Herat province and includes multiple personal accounts:

• Simagul's surviving daughter, Somaya, under one year old, now shows signs of the same illness: chronic diarrhea, a distended belly and skin rashes.
• Yeganeh, married at 15 and now 21, has lost five children. Their symptoms match severe malnutrition and bacterial infection — swelling of the stomach and wasting — and families lacked basic treatments when the children became sick.

# Wider pattern and attribution Refugees International attributes more than 160 deaths over the past 18 months to the aid cuts. The story links those deaths directly to the withdrawal of services previously funded by USAID: routine care, emergency response, nutrition programs and referrals. The weakened local economy and male labor migration to places like Iran further reduce households' capacity to seek timely medical care.

# Practical barriers compounding the crisis Three concrete barriers appear repeatedly in the reporting: distance (clinics and hospitals are hours away), transportation (no ambulances and reliance on borrowed motorcycles), and social restrictions (women require male chaperones to travel through Taliban checkpoints). Those factors turn treatable conditions into fatal emergencies when clinics and feeding services are no longer available.

# Immediate effects on mothers and children Mothers report chronic undernourishment that prevents breastfeeding, recurring infections in infants, and repeated cycles of improvement and relapse. Without local nutrition support and bacterial treatments, children develop severe symptoms — seizures, persistent diarrhea and bloated bellies — that clinics in town cannot always reverse once care is delayed.

# Bottom line