After the abrupt termination of American aid, the health system in central Mozambique descended into chaos.

In part one of this special series, Spotlight and GroundUp explained how children with HIV had been abandoned by US-funded case workers. Now in part two, we describe how the funding cuts affected hospitals, where key staff were dismissed and deliveries of new medicines were halted. In the ensuing turmoil, children died.

After the abrupt termination of American aid, the health system in central Mozambique descended into chaos. In part one of this special series, Spotlight and GroundUp explained how children with HIV had been abandoned by US-funded case workers. Now in part two, we describe how the funding cuts affected hospitals, where key staff were dismissed and deliveries of new medicines were halted. In the ensuing turmoil, children died.

On the hilly outskirts of Manica town in central Mozambique, Costancia Maherepa sits on a reed mat beside her mudbrick home and weeps over the death of her 11-year-old daughter, Paciencia.

For years, their family depended on the support of a US-funded organisation called ANDA (the National Association for Self-Sustained Development). It employed a network of case workers and health staff to care for vulnerable children living with HIV. Paciencia had been one of them.

"When the programme was running, all the kids in this area were healthy and taking their medication," says Costancia. But now, everything has changed. The American aid that once financed ANDA's work is gone and Costancia's family has suffered the consequences.

Paciencia had a difficult life. Her father died six years ago, and Costancia struggled to grow...