Ari Daniel

And a few levels up, I spot Emilia Nthiki, the community liaison officer for the vaccine trials.

Amelia makes her way to a room where 20 or so young women are gathered to hear about participating in the trial.

Who are these 20-some young women, Ari?

Well, all these women are from the community, Nate, including Nandip Hamongo.

She's 25 years old, and she tells me that her community struggles with rape, sex traded for favors, unplanned pregnancies.

which is why she'd happily be involved in the research.

Because she's proud to be making a difference.

I ask, if this team of researchers is able to find a vaccine, what would a world without HIV be like?

It already started, Nate, in January, and it's going to continue for some months.

Of course, Nate.

Thanks for having me.

The innovative trial was supposed to roll out across multiple African nations and had been set up to find the best way to encourage the human immune system to create legions of special, broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Penny Moore is a virologist at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

But early last year, she says the $45 million grant they'd received from USAID to do the work was canceled as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to extinguish foreign aid.

The team scrambled to secure a much smaller amount of other funding and scaled the trial way back to take place within South Africa only.

For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel.

The innovative trial was supposed to roll out across multiple African nations and had been set up to find the best way to encourage the human immune system to create legions of special, broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Penny Moore is a virologist at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

But early last year, she says the $45 million grant they'd received from USAID to do the work was canceled as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to extinguish foreign aid.

The team scrambled to secure a much smaller amount of other funding