U of Manitoba-led program tackling HIV in Kenya in jeopardy due to Trump's cuts to USAID

CBC

06-02-2025

The Trump administration's freeze on American foreign aid is sending a chill into the Manitoba non-profit space, with some humanitarian workers saying it's putting the global initiatives they're working on at risk.
Prof. Julie Lajoie, with the University of Manitoba, said the billion-dollar freeze in humanitarian assistance puts at risk the future of a decades-long initiative spearheaded by Manitoba researchers to care for and prevent HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in Kenya.
"We got told yesterday that we were no longer able to operate our clinics, which means that by Monday [they] have to be shut down," Lajoie told Information Radio host Marcy Markusa Thursday.
"We are right now trying to see if there's a way to bypass USAID and get funding through another organization … but we are in an emergency crisis."
Dozens of senior officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have been sacked and thousands laid off as U.S. President Donald Trump moves to dismantle the flagship agency charged with delivering humanitarian assistance.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk — who heads the Trump administration's government efficiency agency — has said on his social media platform X, formerly called Twitter, USAID is a "criminal organization" and that it is "time for it to die."
The University of Manitoba program gets some of its funding from an American AIDS relief program the U.S. State Department says has helped save 26 million lives across 55 countries.
Lajoie, who holds the F​​​​​​rancis A. Plummer professorship in global infectious diseases, said if the program were shut down, it could have mortal consequences.
"I have a collaborator. She's a sex worker.… She has been living with HIV for 20 years," Lajoie said.
"She's telling me, 'I have six pills left at home. Next week … what's going to happen to me?' And it's [a] heartbreaking question that we don't know how to address."
'Shocked'
The U.S. government says it spends roughly $40 billion US on foreign aid every year.
Earlier this week, the United Nations warned the freeze could have dire consequences worldwide, including more than 1,000 maternal deaths in Afghanistan and the shuttering of critical health services for millions of refugees in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
About 48 per cent of global funding for the UN's humanitarian emergency response came from the U.S. government last year, according to its aid co-ordination agency.
"I was shocked with the decision," said Abdal Rahman Qeshta, partnerships manager with the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation.
Many Manitoban non-profits and charities are scrambling to figure out what to do next, Qeshta said.
"It will lead to budget cuts and scaled-back operations" and delays, he said. "They would face … difficulties in how to communicate this to their local communities, to the beneficiaries of all of these programs."
In the early 2010s, Qeshta worked for a multi-year, USAID-funded program that supported hundreds of thousands people living in Gaza. Similar large-scale projects would not be possible if the foreign agency disappears, he said.
"It's not only about, like, the money," he said.
"It's about … the technical side. It's about the networking as well, or the networking capabilities that they have on the field."
Bruce Guenther, disaster response director for the Mennonite Central Committee, said the suspension will lead to a huge gap that will be hard to fill.
"Humanitarian assistance is needed now more than ever. There's 305 million people that are in need of humanitarian aid," he said.
"That's people facing climate crisis, that's people facing displacement due to conflict.… When we think about the impacts, it's very saddening."
Climate initiatives on pause
The Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development said the funding freeze has already affected their activities.
The charity said the cuts mean they'll have to stop initiatives to implement protections against climate change in about 30 different developing countries — more than a third of the members of its global network.
The institute said USAID had committed more than $6 million for the climate adaptation program. Another project to improve regulations on artisanal gold mines partially funded by the Americans has also been suspended.
CEO Patricia Fuller said that includes several countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, including small island nations and some the world's least developed countries.
"Countries like the United States and Canada … have an interest in a more stable world," she said.
"This kind of thing is of very short-term interest on the part of the United States. It will contribute down the road to more fragility … and developing country governments that have less confidence in countries that support them — and the U.S. in particular."