22 million people.
Four psychiatrists.
Three clinical psychologists.

In Malawi, mental health care barely exists. We're building it from the ground up.

The numbers are staggering.

Malawi has a population of more than 22 million people. When we arrived, there were four psychiatrists in the entire country. Mental health services, for most communities, simply did not exist.

Butterfly Collaborative launched its mental health program to fill a gap that most organizations aren't equipped to address. We work through a central hub model with satellite clinics reaching the most underserved areas. Our approach is evidence-based, culturally grounded, and designed to build local capacity — not create dependency on outside teams.

We're not flying in to do a week of therapy and leave. We're helping build systems that will keep working long after we go home.

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Mental health isn't a luxury. It's the missing piece.

A woman with red hair walking through an arched tunnel of hands created by a group of children standing in two lines on either side of a dirt path, outdoors.
Three colorful butterflies, one purple, one red, and one orange, are depicted

What we do:

  • Evidence-based mental and physical health care through central hub and satellite clinics

  • Community mental health screening and intervention

  • Training local health workers in mental health first response

  • Integration of mental health services with our medical and nutrition programs

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