US aid freeze puts HIV-positive orphans in Kenya at risk as medical supplies dwindle

wo-year-old Evans was brought to the Nyumbani Children’s Home in Nairobi, Kenya a year ago, suffering from HIV and tuberculosis. With no family to care for him, Evans was referred to the orphanage by a health center after he stopped responding to medical treatment.

Nyumbani Children’s Home is the reason Evans is still alive. But political decisions made thousands of miles (kilometers) away might spell the end of his short life. Nyumbani provides him and around 100 other children with antiretroviral medication, which they have been receiving from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Kenyan government.

US President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to freeze USAID’s funding means Nyumbani’s access to life-saving antiretroviral drugs, which stop the HIV virus from replicating in the body, may end soon.

Trump’s order seeks to review almost all US foreign aid for 90 days and his administration has moved to shut down USAID. The effects are beginning to set it in, with thousands of people losing their jobs globally and humanitarian programs around the world disrupted.