Human cost Cuts leave agencies in fear and lives in peril

Overnight, the rug was yanked out from under us, slashing the services we can provide.

- Dr Jennifer Furin

The most drastic impact has been on malnourished children, since most supplies were provided by USAid.

We have succeeded in finding enough ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) to offer nine children a complete course of treatment, but we are down to our last container of F-75, a therapeutic milk for the sickest among the starving, too weak or little to consume the peanut-based supplements. Further stretching meagre supplies, 50,000 refugees fleeing war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo streamed into Burundi at the end of last month.

We have no idea how to feed the multitudes. We are dismayed the UK and other governments appear to be following America's lead, falling dominoes nudging vulnerable families further into peril.

Throughout history, hunger has been weaponised. In this epoch, when wielded by the world's wealthiest nation, it seems especially cruel. Food grown by American farmers is languishing in ports around the globe.

The hospital I support in rural Burundi sits atop a steep hill. The land donated to our organisation Village Health Works - is a dignified setting for medical care. Still, I worry about the paths people have to travel to reach it. The road is rocky, full of turns. Since there are limited vehicles in the region, many patients climb, requiring heroic effort from the sick. The bravest trekkers are the mothers, moving their own weight up the dirt road with babies on their backs. Their determination inspires our staff to work night and day, often to the point of exhaustion.

At the end of their slog, the women used to arrive knowing their little ones would receive comprehensive treatment. Now, we face them with emptier hands.