In Nepal, the visit that stopped coming

Kabita Mukhiya died in December 2025, aged 20 and pregnant. Her death is not this week’s event: Kristen Gelineau and Bram Janssen’s AP investigation, published on August 13, reconstructs what happened. A nurse had recommended a blood test whose importance she did not understand. After her baby died, one hospital referred her elsewhere; without the money or an understanding of the danger, she went home. AP reports eclampsia compounded by severe anaemia. Community visits that explained warning signs and accompanied women to appointments had stopped after US funding cuts.^[1]

CARE's 2022 announcement set out five years of work, through May 2027. Yet AP's August 13 investigation describes visits halted after US cuts. The promised duration and the service people received have diverged. That does not establish a death toll. It shows why aid becomes infrastructure when families organise their lives around it, even without a bridge or building to open.^[1][2]

Withdrawal does not explain everything. In March, Nepali Times described weak hospital referrals alongside municipalities making progress through mobile ultrasound, free ambulances and facility births. Nurse Manisha Kushwaha was examining 28-year-old Robina Khatun. That matters: local action has not vanished with one donor. The question is who has taken over visits in Rautahat, with what resources, and whether families know. A local investigation cannot establish a national death toll caused by the cuts.^[3]