At the beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump suspended most U.S. foreign aid, causing vast confusion and concern around the world. One affected program was PEPFAR, the bipartisan initiative that works to fight HIV/AIDS globally. WSJ’s Nicholas Bariyo from Uganda and Michael M. Phillips from Kenya report. And we hear from Karl Hoffman, the CEO of the public health organization HealthX Partners. Further Listening: -Inside USAID as Elon Musk and DOGE Ripped It Apart Further Reading: -Trump Aid Whiplash Hits Refugees, AIDS Patients Worldwide -Trump Order Freezing Foreign Aid Halts Programs Worldwide, Prompts Confusion and Rush for Waivers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Earlier this week, our colleague Nicholas Barillo went to visit an HIV-AIDS clinic in Kampala, Uganda.
Everything is quiet.
The clinic was closed, shut down after President Trump froze almost all foreign aid money. Only a security guard and a cleaner were on the premises.
The security guard at the gate says he's not allowed to let anyone inside. Now he tells me that people have been coming and being turned away and as a result no one now comes.
Before it closed, it was providing care to hundreds of patients with HIV-AIDS every day. In the meantime, all the medicine that's sitting inside this clinic is just locked away.
Yes, all the medicine, yes. All the supplies because people have been working there were told not to return.
Since its founding, this clinic has been funded almost entirely by U.S. foreign aid. For more than 20 years, it's been part of a program known as PEPFAR, a multi-billion dollar U.S. effort specifically designed to stop the spread of HIV-AIDS globally. And how important are the services provided by this clinic?
So they are very, very important because it helps people who live in rural areas, people who have no money to pay for these tests, and most importantly, expectant mothers, people who are pregnant, and these treatments help them from passing the virus onto their unborn children.
PEPFAR has been swept up in President Trump's 90-day freeze on foreign aid. Although the administration has signaled that it didn't intend to pause PEPFAR entirely, the order is having that effect. At this moment, PEPFAR programs are mostly at a halt all across Africa. I asked our other colleague, Michael Phillips, about the effect of the funding freeze in Kenya, where he's based.
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