How DOGE cuts devastated an HIV/AIDS organization in Mozambique

0:00It's Consider This where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, how global confusion and doge cuts reached all the way to Gaza province in Mozambique. We identified and stopped$50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas. $50 million. That was President Trump early in his second term bragging about cuts from Elon Musk's doge team. And you know what's happened to them? They've used them as a method of making bombs. How about that? In fact, no condoms were being sent anywhere in the Middle East, but the narrative was being spread by the president's supporters, like Fox News host Jesse Waters.

0:42That's right. Hamas floats these things up with bomb-making materials in, and then kaboom, booby-trapped condom. Look it up. Journalists did look it up and concluded that the Gaza in question was probably Gaza province in Mozambique, Africa. But that hardly seemed to matter. Standing in the Oval Office, Musk told reporters... Some of the things that I say will be incorrect. Nobody's going to bat a thousand. You know, if it went to Mozambique instead of Gaza, I'm like, okay, that's not as bad. But still, you know, why are we doing that? Consider this. Mozambique has the second largest AIDS epidemic in the world.

1:19And Gaza province is the hardest hit spot in the country. I recently traveled there to see how the Trump administration's cuts left aid organizations scrambling. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers.

1:58link your feed.

2:05It's Consider This from NPR. Armenda Nafungo runs the organization Activa.

2:13Activa is an association here in Gaza province, and its primary activity is to save lives. We are all social activists. It's for the love of life. Activa was founded by Arminda Nafungo's mother back in 1994 to promote the role of women in the economy of Gaza province. Since then, the mission has expanded to focus on young women and girls who are disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS. Nafungo says that work did not include condom distribution. Instead, they did social work, mentoring, and sexual health education, at least until January 2025. Yeah, they explained it through email that the cut was coming from the president of the United States.

2:58Can you tell me what that was like and what your first reaction was? Oof. It was so scary because it was an abrupt cut. It happened all of a sudden. It felt like a very critical moment. Activa was already stretched thin. Floods earlier this year destroyed their offices, forcing them to work out of a temporary space. There's also a severe fuel shortage due to the U.S. war with Iran. People can spend a full day waiting in line to get fuel. And despite those challenges, workers are still showing up. Even if they're not being paid anymore. Jose Bento says this wasn't just a job. It was something from the heart.

3:44I want to tell you a story he tells me. It's painful, but it will help you understand. Leticia was 12 when she was referred to as Bento tells me. Her mom didn't know what was wrong with her, but my colleague and I saw the signs of HIV. With treatment, she began to recover, he continues. I helped her make up her schoolwork. She was like a sister to me. But with the funding cuts, I stopped visiting. Her mom was away and she stayed with her grandmother. I didn't see her for three months. Then I got a call. Leticia was pregnant.

4:25I knew some of her neighbors tried to do a traditional abortion. But we lost contact and she died, Bento says. She was 13 years old. It's heartbreaking, he continues. This isn't just a funding cut. It's people's lives.

4:45The funding that's been cut came from the president's emergency plan for AIDS relief. PEPFAR launched after President George W. Bush made a moral case for ending the AIDS epidemic in 2003. The program had bipartisan support for decades. It's often cited as an example of the U.S.'s moral leadership in the world. But in the name of ending waste and foreign dependence, the Trump administration has made fundamental changes to PEPFAR. And in Mozambique, one of the most successful programs had been a PEPFAR initiative called DREAMS. It's a program focused on HIV prevention specifically for adolescent girls and young women.

5:24Activa was one of many groups which implemented DREAMS, says Regina Mabang. We have a huge number of girls in need. In Gaza province, the program supported girls with the books and uniforms they needed to go to school. Regina Mabang worked as a mentor for DREAMS. She recruited 80 girls to participate in the program. But the children lost that opportunity. And the worst is, I work in my community. That was heartbreaking. It hurts me as a person. So we're here at a neighborhood in Chi Chi, and we're going with Regina, one of the DREAMS mentors. This young woman that we're going to see, she's been working with the DREAMS program and benefiting from their services since 2024.

6:11for. Nadia Marengue is 22. She sits next to her cousin, Margarita McIvey. She's 24. We learned a lot from our dreams mentors, Marengue tells me. They taught us life skills, how to behave within the community, how to have healthy conversations.

6:34Besides that, her cousin adds, they taught us business skills so we can support ourselves. Nadia Meringue is one of five children. Her family's business is farming. Her father grows crops like corn, beans, lettuce, and onions. All of those crops were swallowed by flooding earlier this year. The cuts were a disaster, she tells me. If it continues this way, many other girls won't be able to learn these skills. And they won't flourish. Mentors also met with young women and girls in small groups, teaching them regular lessons on things like active listening and communication, as well as gender-based violence.

7:15I asked the young women if they still have their notebooks from those classes. Meringue runs inside to grab hers. We learned about reproductive health, she says, how to prevent pregnancy, how to prevent disease. Is there anything else that you want us to know about your experience with the program or what things are like now that the funding has gone away? Marengue tells me what makes us sad is that besides being our mentors, they were our friends. We can even consider them like mothers. For now, though, her cousin says without that support, she and the other Dreams girls feel abandoned. Arminda Nafongo tells me Activa is not just standing by and watching.

8:01She says they will continue to apply for funding with other partners and that above all else, they're encouraging people to stick with prevention and treatment so that when the project comes back, there won't be many lost lives. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said that the new direct agreement with Mozambique's government on global health cooperation, quote, protects American lives while strengthening Mozambique's ability to detect, prevent and control infectious diseases, and said that the America First global health strategy has strengthened PEPFAR.

8:40This episode was produced by Matt Ozog, Vincent Acavino, and Alejandra Marquez-Hance. It was edited by Patrick Jaron Watananen. Our Anarim Executive Producer is Courtney Dornig.

8:54It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers. It's June and another big week in the run-up to the midterms. Primaries in half a dozen states, including California. where new congressional maps are in place and a chaotic race for governor is wide open. We're also following gas prices and Iran. So far, talk of a peace deal is just talk. We'll keep you posted. Listen every morning, Up First, on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. This message comes from Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone Sapphire personalizes your language learning. Get unlimited access to all 25 Rosetta Stone languages and Sapphire learning tools.

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