U.S. Aid Changes Create Uncertainty for HIV Programs in South Africa and Mozambique

U.S. foreign aid have destabilized long-effective HIV/AIDS programs in South Africa and neighboring Mozambique, NPR reported. President George W. Bush announced the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, in January 2003.

The State Department estimates the program has saved roughly 26 million lives since its inception. South Africa still has the highest number of people with HIV of any country.

U.S. Embassy in Mozambique. Lucky Mazibuko, an HIV-positive activist and former journalist, told NPR that PEPFAR changed everything across the African continent. He said that in the early days of the epidemic there was no hope and no light.

Mazibuko disclosed his HIV status in a column in South Africa's biggest newspaper in 1999, when the disease remained shrouded in stigma and shame. He now runs a restaurant in Soweto Township. NPR reporters visited Soweto Township and spoke with public health workers who worried that the aid changes have created uncertainty that could lead to loss of life or more infections.

Hospitals across Africa were overwhelmed with young men and women dying excruciating deaths during the peak of the epidemic decades ago. South Africa was at the center of that crisis. Over nearly two weeks of reporting in South Africa and Mozambique, NPR's team heard stories of resilience from people working at PEPFAR-funded clinics.

The reporting team included Matt Ozug and Vincent Acovino from All Things Considered, with support from the Pulitzer Center.