Islanders in Kenya already seeing impact of Trump's foreign aid freeze on HIV treatment
'It's setting the country back 40 years,' says P.E.I. volunteer
As the Trump administration moves to dramatically cut the United States' international aid budget, some volunteers from Prince Edward Island are beginning to see the impact on the ground, particularly on efforts to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.
Nancy Macfadyen, a nurse with the P.E.I.-based non-profit Farmers Helping Farmers, has been in Kenya for the past few weeks. The organization primarily supports farming communities in the East African nation, but also works on initiatives beyond agriculture, including health care.
Macfadyen is currently in Kenya's Meru County working with health-care volunteers and professionals to address human health concerns in the region.
She said people there have relied on U.S. funding to provide treatment for people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which without treatment can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Now, she fears the frozen funding will mean the difference between life and death.
"Different people I spoke to at different dispensaries and community hospitals — they're basically fighting tears because their full-time job is managing these people that are positive with HIV and AIDS, and now they have no treatment," she told CBC's As It Happens.
"It's setting the country back 40 years."
Over the last two weeks, dozens of senior officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have been put on leave, thousands of contractors have been laid off, and a freeze imposed on billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to other countries.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who heads the Trump administration's government efficiency agency, has said on his social media platform X, formerly called Twitter, that USAID is a "criminal organization" and that it is "time for it to die."
'Devastating' impact
Katie MacNeill, another volunteer with Farmers Helping Farmers in Meru County, echoed Macfadyen's concerns.
"It's devastating to see because these are some of the most hard-working and amazing people that I have ever met in my life, and with these medications, a lot of them were able to have energy to go to school, and it's helping their wellness and their health and allowing them to work," she told CBC P.E.I.'s Island Morning.
MacNeill, a recent graduate of the dietetics program at the University of Prince Edward Island, said this week alone, 350 people who had been employed to educate communities and provide essential resources lost their jobs.
UNICEF estimates that as of 2020, more than 111,000 children in Kenya were living with HIV. MacNeill said she recently visited a school with 220 students from Grades 1 to 9, and approximately 10 per cent of them were born infected with HIV because their mothers had been exposed to it.
"Now they're going to fall extremely ill, and their parents are going to have to take care of them… So it's going to be a huge barrier on a lot of people," the UPEI graduate said.
As for Macfadyen, she has been hearing about new HIV/AIDS cases in the region among young people aged 15 to 25, with the majority being young girls and women.
"There's no weaning off, no chance for them to find other sources for the medications," Macfadyen said. "I dread the next couple of years, coming back to see how AIDS and HIV is going to rear its ugly head in this country."
'Help the people that need it the most'
Macfadyen said she's aware some Americans and even Canadians support Trump's decision, feeling aid money should be spent at home, on citizens who are struggling and need support.
But she said the level of need in Kenya is much greater, pointing out that basic necessities that Canadians take for granted, like having hot water, are lacking for many in Kenya.
While she agrees the Kenyan government definitely should do more, Macfadyen said the way the USAID funding freeze was announced was abrupt and devastating.
"I just really feel that if we don't help the people that need it the most in this world, then there's something wrong."
As for MacNeill, she and other P.E.I. volunteers remain committed to their work with Farmers Helping Farmers. They will continue to teach communities about sustainability, improving nutrition through farming, providing water tanks, and offering agricultural education.
"It's nice to know that what we're doing — even though there's all this chaos and sadness going on in a lot of their lives — can still help them in some way."
With files from Island Morning and As It Happens