After US aid cuts, South Africa’s HIV response strains to hold the line
By Elissa Miolene // 16 February 2026
JOHANNESBURG — It’s mid-morning, and Lungani Sithole has already made dozens of phone calls.
Some numbers don’t ring, and others go straight to voicemail. A few connect, briefly, before the line drops. But when someone does answer, the peer educator moves carefully, trying to figure out whether the person whose number he called is still in treatment — and in some cases, whether they’re still alive.
“Any wrong move I do now, or any wrong attitude that I portray, could unleash the mental thread that’s keeping that person together,” said Sithole, who has been a peer educator at South African HIV clinic OUT LGBT Well-Being since 2019. “These people are coming from a lot within their communities, within their houses, within themselves.”
Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).
About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene covers U.S. foreign assistance from Washington, D.C. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other news outlets across the world. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for aid agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
Search for articles
Most Read
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5