Malawi

The Problem

There are estimated to be 920,000 people living with HIV in Malawi (1). Some progress has been made in the country with around 50% of those with advanced HIV now being treated. However PMTCT coverage is only around 60% and the numbers of people diagnosed does not seem to be decreasing (just under 100,000 each year). There are still issues to address:

• Young women are twice as likely to be infected with HIV than young men.
• 21% of MSM in Malawi are HIV+ compared to 11% of the general population.
• Over 650,000 children have lost a mother or father to AIDS (2).

Our Response

In 2005 EJAF began to develop a partnership with 3 other funders (Comic Relief, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund) under the umbrella of the Funder’s Collaborative for Children (FCFC).  The FCFC aims to address collectively the complete needs of orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS in Malawi, from the earliest stages of their lives to the point at which they can thrive independently.

EJAF places great emphasis on collaboration and leverage in its grant making.  The FCFC presents an innovative and unique opportunity to establish an holistic approach to both grantmaking and service delivery, whilst also achieving scale in terms of numbers of people reached. Over time, the FCFC aims to effect policy development in relation to orphans and vulnerable children, and achieve significant financial leverage to continue this work.  For this reason, EJAF Trustees have elected to redirect the entire general fund allocation for Malawi to our partnership within the FCFC.

As part of the FCFC consortium EJAF is supporting a project working to ‘surround the child' with care, ensuring access to a range of high-quality services which will provide a foundation on which a child can thrive as a child and then as an adult. Its strategy is to strengthen local and district level systems and develop effective referral processes. The project is being implemented by Family Health International together with national partners in Malawi, which include local NGOs and the District Social Welfare Office.

1. UNAIDS 2009

2. UNAIDS 2009