How HIV funding cuts are undermining years of progress in Zimbabwe

📅 Published: August 15, 2025

📰 Source: zimbabwesituation

Curated by AllZimNews.com

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in Zimbabwe interviewed volunteers from different organizations who have witnessed first-hand the impact of the funding cuts.

Angela Jambo is one of these volunteers.

She welcomed us warmly into her home in the town of Chitungwiza, bearing a beaming smile that masked a long, painful journey as she took us back to the year 2000—the year she was diagnosed with HIV. “Back then, it was a death sentence,” Angela said.

Angela’s story is far from unique. “Support groups were everything,” says Angela, an organizer supporting people who are HIV-positive. | Zimbabwe 2025 © Conrad Gweru Hope is crumbling Antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) was not available in Zimbabwe, and people living with HIV largely relied on “positive living” methods, which entailed embracing a proactive lifestyle focused on traditional nutrition, herbal remedies, mental well-being, and peer support to manage life with HIV.

Together, Angela and a few other women marched to the official residence of the president of Zimbabwe, in hopes to share their grievances.

However, the security situation prevented them from getting there, so they eventually secured a meeting with the country’s vice president.

That meeting became one of the many milestones that led to the introduction of ARVs in Zimbabwe five years later.

Since then, Angela has spent her time advocating for other people living with HIV.

With strong donor support, particularly from the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, access to treatment expanded, support groups grew, awareness increased, and hope renewed.

Immediately, nutritional aid, food hampers, psychological support, and educational materials disappeared.

Parents and guardians of children living with HIV were thrown into confusion.

That hope is now crumbling due to President Trump’s sweeping executive order earlier this year, which froze most foreign aid and was followed by an aggressive rescission proposal aimed at cutting billions in global health and development funding.