When the Trump administration halted funding for Yo’ Care South Sudan — a local organization serving 10,000 people with its HIV/AIDS programming alone — the impact was swift and devastating.
Nearly 1,000 women lost access to the medications they needed to survive. Another 9,000 people were stripped of the testing, preventative treatment, and health care services they had relied on for years. Five tons of health commodities have sat frozen in Yo’ Care’s clinics. And now, the organization has been forced to lay off more than 90% of its staff.
“They’re asking us: How are we going to continue surviving without this medication we need every day? How are we going to protect ourselves?” said Yohanis Riek, who has led Yo’ Care since 2009. “As indigenous NGOs, we have nowhere to go.”