In Nanyuki, a market town northwest of Mount Kenya, some foreign assistance employees and volunteers are worried about what US President Donald Trump Disassembly of the American International Development Agency It will mean for people there.
“It's a problem. This is a real problem, “said Rex Taylor, a co-founder and president of a small project, a registered Canadian charity organization that helps to send children to school at rural Kenya.
“My judgment means that people will die unnecessarily,” said CBC News during an annual visit to Nanyuki.
Kenya has one of the highest HIV indicators in the world, taking the 11th place with the spread of 3.7 percent in 2022, according to World Health Organization. According to non-profit organization, about 1.4 million Kenyans are positive Know. AMFAR, AIDS Research Foundation, notes that about 1.3 million people treat HIV/AIDS in this country.
Kenya consists in the direct financing of the USA on 29 percent of HIV expenses, According to Unaids – 10. The most dependent country in the world.
Taylor claims that the fear of freezing Trump's foreign help can break their access to antiretroviral drugs (ARV), which stops HIV from repeating in the body.
But in particular Taylor says he is worried about Joseph Awoi, a 20-year-old aspiring culinary student in Nanyuki. Taylor, who lives in Newmarket, Ont., Supported Awoi's education through a small project since Awoi was a child.
In May Awoi, an orphan, born in deaf and positive HIV viruses, will take part in a culinary program in Nairobi thanks to this further financing. While his educational funds are not related to USAID, like many other Kenyans, Awoi depends on ARVS.
And Taylor says he shares the history of Awoi to face the potential influence of USAID cuts.
“This is a situation that is still developing here. He is under the radar, people don't think about it, “said Taylor.
“People need to know that there are real people who do not have resources, because of their country and their birth, who, if the threats fall as we are afraid, mean that they will start getting sick.”
Humanitarian efforts in chaos
The Trump administration announced last week that it cancels almost 10,000 subsidies for foreign assistance and contracts worth almost $ 60 billion of the US, which ends about 90 percent of USAID global work.
The closing of USAID is part of the unprecedented reduction of the federal government by the Department of Government Elon Musk. The sudden death of the Aid Agency dumped a global humanitarian relief Efforts in chaos.
Last Friday, UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was deeply concerned about serious cuts in American foreign help, in the strong noise of movement, which, as he said, would be “particularly destructive” for the people in the world.
“Going through these cuts will make the world less healthy, less safe and less wealthy. Reducing the humanitarian role and influence of America will be contrary to American interests around the world, “said Guterres in a statement for UN reporters.
As the decision of the US President Donald Trump to freeze most foreign help for 90 days, Salimah Shijvi from CBC looks at how these cuts make the life of the persecuted refugees to Rohingya in the Cox bazaar, Bangladesh – the largest refugee camp in the world.
He said that financing programs for combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other programs.
Humanitarian aid through the emergency of the US president in the field of AIDS or Pepfar assistance to combat HIV in Kenya was financed mainly by USAID. Over the past two decades, the US government, through Pepfar, spent over $ 8 billion on HIV/AIDS treatment for nearly $ 1.3 million in Kenya, informs Associated Press.
Margaret Odera last month, Social health care worker who lives in Nairobi, he wrote LinkedIn's request, Expressing the fears that the US “withdraw from countries like mine from ARV inventory.”
“Many look at you as a leading country and superpower. Saveing your life does not make you poorer, “Odera wrote.
“We pray for you.”
“What happens when drug supply is over?”
At the end of January, the Ministry of Health of Kenya issued a statement Repeating your involvement in maintaining HIV/AIDS treatment programs.
“The Ministry is actively involved with other development partners and invests in local pharmaceutical production to prevent treatment of treatment,” said Dr. Patrick Amoth, Health CEO.
But without a strong emergency plan, “a sudden end of financing Pepfar will have destructive consequences”, he wrote three professors of medical microbiology and infectious diseases from the University of Manitoba in the article Published in an interview February 24.
The University of Manitoba has been cooperating with the Outreach sex workers and a local agency in Nairobi for 45 years, wrote assistant prof. Julie Lajoie, prof. Keith Fowke and PhD student Toby Le.
The partnership with SWOP has been financed by Pepfar since 2003.
If this financing is over, “this would not mean more tests for the presence of HIV, preventive treatment and antiretroviral therapy – which would increase the risk of transmission, which led to an increase in cases, and even more deaths in people living with HIV,” the professors wrote.
USAID employees who lost their jobs received 15-minute intervals to clean their desks on Thursday among the huge removal of a widely successful program. Employees were welcomed by the cheers of fans who left the building for the last time.
In Naniuki, no one really knows what will happen next, and there are many worries, says Taylor. It will continue to support Awoi, including “absolutely” paying for medicines through a charity, if necessary, said Taylor.
But he is also worried about all other people in Kenya who may not be able to afford antiretroviral drugs.
“There are many children – and many adults like him,” said Taylor.
“What happens when drug supply begins?”
