The USAID freeze has put children’s lives at risk in orphanages in Kenya. One such orphanage is the Nyumbani Children’s Home, which receives medication from USAID for the one hundred children (who have HIV/AIDS) to combat the disease. On average, about $1,139 are needed annually per child that has HIV for antiretroviral medication, regular testing, and medication for other viruses that might arise. Much of the required funding comes from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, created by President Bush in 2003. Without this critical funding source, which falls under USAID, many of the children might not survive.

Sister Tresa Palakudy, a caretaker at Nyumbani, told AP News about her memories of when the orphanage first opened, before HIV treatments were available. She said, “When we started caring for them, they didn’t look like they had life in them… [o]ne after another, they died. It was so painful, and I don’t want to see that happen again.” Experts are also deeply concerned about the funding freeze and its impact on PEPFAR. Professor Francois Venter of the University of the Witwatersrand has worked in HIV healthcare in South Africa. He said that “PEPFAR is the most efficient deployment of health resources I have seen… I challenge anyone to tell me how we could have used the money better.”
Nyumbani is not alone in facing the looming threat of the disease. 1.3 million people in Kenya and 26 million people across the African continent have benefitted from the funding. Now, many countries are struggling to fill the gaps caused by lost healthcare workers and clinics. For instance, the Kenyan government has requested recent graduates and final-year medical students to replace the 40,000 American workers laid off. Technically, PEPFAR is considered “essential,” and thus is supposed to be exempt from the funding freeze. Yet despite a judge granting waivers to the program, many NGOs are still not receiving funding from USAID. There have been other controversies as well, such as the waivers only covering funding for pregnant or breastfeeding women, not gay men or sex workers.

The U.S. government has made a terrible mistake by stopping this aid. There are millions of people, including children, who depend on the medication for survival, and delaying or suspending aid money could be a death sentence. Additionally, the U.S. government has not pulled back USAID gradually or given tips on how various countries can come up with new plans, leaving countries to take desperate measures to fill in the lost workforce and resources. Even U.S. citizens have been harmed by the policy, because tens of thousands of aid workers around the world have lost their jobs. USAID and PEPFAR help save lives and promote development across the world, while only taking up a minute percent of the government’s budget, so cutting these programs is nonsensical. The government should reimplement PEPFAR and other crucial USAID programs immediately to stop unnecessary suffering. They should also help foreign governments come up with plans to seek alternative sources of funding and resources, so that they are not as dependent on USAID.

For 50,000 children at Nyumbani since 1999, USAID and PEPFAR funding have been life-savers. Taking that away, very abruptly and without helping create an alternative plan of action, is a massive human rights violation. The Trump administration and the U.S. government as a whole should take accountability for the harm their actions have caused and work to mitigate them in some way.