Johannesburg (AP) – Four days later President Donald Trump signed a decree Combining almost all American foreign aidAn email landed in the reception box of Claris Madhuku in Rural Zimbabwe. Stop all the activities immediately, he said.
The message confirms the fears of Madhuku that Trump’s return to his functions could affect the efforts of his organization to save African girls from children’s marriages.
Many Africans had known that Trump’s “America first” prospects meant their continent was probably the last Among his priorities. But they did not expect the brutal stop of the foreign help of the biggest donor in the world who stops pouring money for large -scale projects such as the response to the disease, the education of girls and Free school lunches.
Even after global indignation has caused certain exemptions to the order of Trump, sub -Saharan Africa could suffer more than any other region, most world aid stop 90 days for an expenditure exam. The United States has given the region more than $ 6.5 billion in humanitarian aid last year.
For Madhuku and countless others, the damage was caused. Its platform for the development of young people and the community is one of the hundreds of small non -governmental organizations in Africa which receive help from the American government – and ultimately from the American people – to do good work.
Without helping in the United States, the Madhuku group cannot give around 100 benefits of volunteers for food and public transport, because they make awareness seeking to keep girls in school and get out of the first marriages.
“We had to stop everything, no warning, no time to adapt,” said Madhuku. “I appreciate that Trump could have a certain justification to try to take into account the money of American taxpayers … but that caused a disaster here.”
The most successful foreign aid program in the world
For many in Africa, thoughts immediately turned to the most successful foreign aid program in the world, the President’s emergency plan for the relief of AIDSor pepfar.
Over two decades, the program with bipartite support was credited with having saved more than 25 million lives, the vast majority in Africa, the continent it was designed to help the most.
“The world is disconcerted”, the Minister of Health of South Africa, the country with the most people LIVE WITH HIVSaid after the American freeze on aid.
Minister, Aaron Wordsoledi, said the United States is funding almost 20% of the annual South African HIV / AIDS program through PEPFAR, and now the greatest response to a single disease in history is threatened.
More than 8 million in South Africa live with HIV, and the authorities say that PEPFAR helps provide vital antiretroviral treatment to 5.5 million people each day.
HIV patients are refused
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the programs offering “vital” assistance, including medicine, medical services, food and refuge, are exempt from the freeze, although what is qualified is not immediately clear.
The United Nations AIDS program said that many organizations receiving PEPFAR funding had closed due to the aid break and that there was a “lack of clarity and great uncertainty about the future”. More than 20 million people worldwide receive HIV treatment with PEPFAR support, said onida.
In the largest city in South Africa, Johannesburg and elsewhere, the installations financed by PEPFAR were still closed a few days after the announcements of exemptions and patients with HIV were referred to government hospitals and clinics.
In the largest canton of Johannesburg, Soweto, two workers in the center of HIV -funded by the PEPFAR have moved patients away. And an opinion to the famous clinic of key populations of Wits Rhi, which serves adults and children living with HIV, say: “We apologize for the inconvenience that this causes.”
Delays could be dangerous
Experts have said that the effects on HIV programs remain vague, but the consequences could be quick, even dangerous.
“We must know much more before we can say that people will not die directly because of the breakdown break,” said Charles Kenny, a principal researcher at the Center for Global Development in Washington, noting that if the renunciation should Covering drugs, HIV diagnostic tests are also essential to ensure that treatment reaches those who need it.
Kenny said that even short interruptions of antiretroviral treatment – which prevents the virus from replying to the body – are risky.
“HIV viral charges bounce in about three weeks if you discourage antiretrovirals,” he said.
Overall, even senior officials from the aid community do not know which programs funded by the United States are authorized to continue operations at least briefly.
The Trump administration warned entrepreneurs and staff members with USAID – the agency responsible for dispersion of American foreign aid – they could be disciplined if they speak to someone outside the agency Without high -level approval, and help groups fear to permanently lose funds if they speak publicly.
Help stop in war areas
A humanitarian official told the Associated Press that at least 1.2 million people in Congo could lose vital support due to the freeze. The official, who spoke under the cover of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue, said that almost half of the funding of their organization came from the USAID.
Overall, more than $ 100 million for humanitarian programs in the organization in more than 30 countries in the world have been interrupted, according to the official.
The aid block came during a Major climbing in fights in eastern Congowhere millions of people were already moved and where the epidemics of the MPox virus were declared a global health emergency Last year.
In Sudan torn by the civil warwho is Fighting with choleraMalaria and measles, aid gel means that 600,000 people will be at risk of grave to catch and spread these diseases, the official said.
Even with the exemption from rescue services, the manager said that their organization had been informed that they should not resume the activities financed by the USAID until they have received the notification that the renunciation is applies to them.
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Imray reported to Cape Town, South Africa, Mutsaka reported to Harare, Zimbabwe and Banchereau reported in Dakar, Senegal. The writers of the Associated Press Maria Cheng in London, Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Jacob Zimba in Lusaka, Zambia, contributed to this story.
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