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

February 6, 2025 Canuck

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.

Julie Lajoie, an assistant professor at 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.

People holding signs saying things like "The faces of foreign aid" and "USAID saves lives" — Demonstrators and lawmakers rally against U.S. President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk over their dismantling of USAID on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Dozens of senior officials have been sacked and thousands laid off as the Trump administration freezes funding for foreign aid. (J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press)

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 Francis 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.”

LISTEN | U.S. funding cuts threaten HIV/AIDS prevention program in Kenya:

Information Radio – MB8:59Funding Cuts and the Fight Against HIV/AIDS

The Trump administration’s drastic cuts to government funding are putting vital HIV/AIDS prevention research at risk. A team from the University of Manitoba, working on the frontlines of HIV/AIDS prevention in Nairobi, faces the threat of losing their funding. Assistant Professor Julie Lajoie from the Sex, Hormones and Immunology Lab shares the implications of this loss and what it means for the future of life-saving research.

‘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 Abdalrahman 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.”

A man in a suit — Abdalrahman Qeshta with the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation says he’s shocked by efforts to shut down USAID. (Abdalrahman Qeshta)

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 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 organization said the cuts mean it will have to stop initiatives to implement protections against climate change in about 30 different developing countries like Nigeria, Honduras and Haiti — more than a third of the members of its global network.

A woman sitting behind a table, talking in front of a microphone. — Patricia Fuller, CEO of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, says the funding freeze is already having an impact on the organization’s activities. (Submitted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development)

It 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 the network includes several countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, including small island nations and some of 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.”

Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze puts Manitoba-led program in jeopardy

14 minutes ago

Duration 2:11

A freeze on USAID research funding could kill a University of Manitoba outreach program that saves lives in Nairobi. Assistant Prof. Julie Lajoie says 50,000 people get AIDs prevention drugs through the program, and now their lives are at risk.

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Canada News

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

‘Shocked’

Climate initiatives on pause

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