The global fight against HIV/AIDS, in chaos
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
Within hours of taking office in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order freezing nearly all foreign aid. While exemptions were later given for some life-saving services, the move has sent the global fight against HIV/AIDS into chaos.
In Kenya, clinics have closed, HIV medication is being rationed and condom dispensers are empty, according to The Washington Post’s Nairobi correspondent, Katharine Houreld. She spoke with host Colby Itkowitz about a woman named Mary’s story, and how mothers and children with HIV fear for their lives.
In the wake of the U.S. overhaul in foreign aid, many now wonder: How much of these long-fought victories against the virus are now being lost?
Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon. It was mixed by Sean Carter, and edited by Lucy Perkins. Thanks to Jesse Mesner-Hage and Jennifer Amur.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So we're sitting here and Mary, you've just taken your kids to school. |
| 0:07.5 | You've been trying to get them to school, but they keep coming back. |
| 0:10.7 | What is the issue? |
| 0:12.4 | The issue is that I don't have the school fees, the money they want. |
| 0:16.1 | This is Mary. |
| 0:17.4 | She's a former sex worker in Kenya. |
| 0:19.7 | She's speaking with the post-Nairobi correspondent, Catherine Horald. |
| 0:23.2 | They're talking about her current financial situation |
| 0:25.5 | and why she doesn't have enough money to pay school fees for her kids. |
| 0:29.8 | I don't have a job right now, |
| 0:32.3 | so I have to struggle here and there to find the school fees. |
| 0:35.8 | But the issue here is money. |
| 0:38.3 | She lives in the capital Nairobi, and Catherine says that until recently, Mary had been working |
| 0:43.4 | in HIV outreach in her community. |
| 0:45.6 | She's one of the people that has been trying to change things for the better. |
| 0:49.3 | She has been trying to educate her community, about the dangers and about the treatment, how to protect |
| 0:55.1 | yourselves, what to do, how to live positively. That's what she calls it. Mary's work received |
| 1:01.2 | funding from USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, which delivers billions of dollars |
| 1:07.6 | of lifesaving food, water, and medical aid to people around the world. |
| 1:12.6 | You know, she was just scraping by. She got about $100 a month stipends from this program |
| 1:19.3 | that she worked for doing HIV education outreach. You know, they were hanging on by their |
| 1:24.8 | fingernails, but they were hanging on. But then, everything changed when President Trump took office in January. |
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