In Nanyuki, a market city northwest of Mount Kenya, some foreign helpers and volunteers are concerned, which US President Donald Trump from the US Agency will mean for international development for people there.
“It’s a problem. It is a real problem,” said Rex Taylor, co -founder and president of the small project, a registered Canadian charity organization that sends children at school in rural Kenya.
“In my opinion, it will mean that people die unnecessarily,” he told CBC News during an annual visit to Nanyuki.
Kenya has one of the highest HIV rates in the world and, according to the World Health Organization, took 11th place in 2022 with a prevalence of 3.7 percent. Around 1.4 million Kenyans are HIV-positive, according to the non-profit organization. Amfar, the Foundation for AIDS research, notes that around 1.3 million people in the country are in the HIV/AIDS treatment.
According to the unaids, Kenya supports the world’s most tenth country for 29 percent of its HIV-related expenses.
Taylor says he is concerned that Trump’s external aid could separate her access to anti -retroviral drugs (ARV), which prevents HIV from replicating in the body.
In particular, Taylor says that he is concerned about Joseph Awoi, a 20-year-old up-and-coming culinary student in Nanyuki. Taylor, who in Newmarket, Ontario, lives, supports Awois Education by the small project since Awoi has been a child.
In May, Awoi, an orphan who was born deaf and HIV positive, will take part in a culinary program in Nairobi through this continued financing. While his educational financing, like so many other Kenyans, is not related to USA, AWOI is dependent on ARVS.
And Taylor says he tells Awoi’s story to put the possible effects of the USAID cuts on the face.
“It is a situation that still unfolds here. It is under the radar, people don’t think about it,” said Taylor.
“People need to know that there are real people who are without resources due to the circumstances of their country and their birth that, when the threats go out as we fear, means that they become sick.”
Humanitarian aid measures in chaos
The Trump government announced last week that it terminated almost 10,000 subsidies and contracts worth almost 60 billion US dollars in the United States and around 90 percent of the global work of USAID.
The Shutter from the USA is part of an unprecedented reduction in the federal government by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The sudden death of the aid agency has thrown the global humanitarian relief Efforts in chaos.
Last Friday, the United Nations Secretary General said António Guterres that he was deeply concerned about serious cuts in US foreign support, in a strong reproduction of the move, which he said that he would be “particularly devastating” for the vulnerable people of the world.
“With these cuts, the world becomes less healthy, less safe and less wealthy. The reduction of the humanitarian role and the influence of America will contradict American interests worldwide,” said Guterres in a statement to reporters at the United Nations.
When US President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze the most foreign help for 90 days around the world, Salimah Shijvi from CBC examines how these cuts make life for persecuted Rohingya refugees in the Bazar of Cox, Bangladesh, the world’s largest refugee camp.
The financing of programs that fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other programs are stopped, he said.
Humanitarian aid by the emergency plan of the US President of AIDS relief or Pepper to combat HIV in Kenya was largely financed by the USA. In the past two decades, the US government has spent more than 8 billion US dollars for HIV/AIDS treatment for almost 1.3 million people in Kenya, reports The Associated Press.
Last month Margaret Odera, a community -living health worker living in Nairobi, wrote a plea about LinkedIn and expressed her fears that the USA “helps from countries like Mine from Arvs”.
“Many see them as the main country and superpower. Rescue of life does not make them poorer,” wrote Odera.
“We pray for you.”
“What happens if the drug supply ends?”
At the end of January, Kenya Ministry of Health published a statement in which his commitment to maintain the HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs was repeated.
“The Ministry is actively involved in other development partners and invests in local pharmaceutical production to prevent treatment disorders,” said Dr. Patrick Amoth, General Director of Health.
Without a strong emergency plan “the abrupt end of the Pepper Financing will have devastating consequences,” wrote three professors for medical microbiology and infectious diseases by the University of Manitoba in an article published in the conversation on February 24th.
The University of Manitoba has been working with the sex worker -Outreach program (SWOP) and a local agency in Nairobi for 45 years, wrote assistant Prof. Julie Lajoie, Prof. Keith Fowke and PhD candidate Toby Le.
The partnership with SWOP has been financed by Pepfar since 2003.
If this financing ends, “this would no longer mean HIV tests, preventive treatment and anti -retroviral therapy – which would increase the risk of transmission, which would lead to an increase in cases and even a larger number of deaths in people with HIV,” wrote the professors.
U.S.ID workers who have lost their work received 15-minute intervals to clear out their desks on Thursday in the middle of a massive section of the widespread program. The workers were welcomed by supporters when they left the building for the last time.
In Nanyuki, nobody really knows what will happen next and there is a lot of worry, says Taylor. He will continue to support Awoi, including “absolutely”, to pay his medication through the charity if necessary, said Taylor.
But he is also worried about all other people in Kenya who may not be able to afford antirrovirals.
“There are many children – and many adults – who are like them,” said Taylor.
“What happens if the drug supply ends?”
