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When the Trump administration cut foreign aid last year, Pastor Billiance Chondwe told NPR many of his congregants in Zambia lost access to HIV medication. Now he tells NPR's Gabrielle Emanuel their children are paying the price.
GABRIELLE EMANUEL, BYLINE: Pastor Billy, as he's known in his church, often spends his days tracking down people whose clinics shut down with the aid cuts last year.
BILLIANCE CHONDWE: In the rural, remote areas, there used to be mobile clinic that nowadays, it is not there.
EMANUEL: Sometimes he can help people access drugs, but not always. Increasingly, he says, he finds children scrambling to figure out what to do as their parents get sick without their HIV medications. A few months ago, he found three brothers in Zambia's Copperbelt Province. Their names - Joseph (ph), Gift (ph) and Alumbwe (ph), ages 17, 15 and 12. NPR agreed not to use their full names since they're minors. The boys watched as AIDS took hold and their parents grew weak and lost weight rapidly, with no strength to walk the several hours to the hospital.
JOSEPH: (Speaking Bemba).
EMANUEL: Joseph, the eldest brother, says in the local language, Bemba, "we started selling things in the house. Whoever wanted to buy a mattress, we would sell. Whoever wanted to buy pots, we would sell." The money was for a motorcycle taxi to get their parents to the hospital. Each night, the boys would kneel in the dark and pray for help. But in January, their mother died, and then in February, their father. Joseph says he had no idea what to do.
JOSEPH: (Speaking Bemba).
EMANUEL: "We started going to church so that God could take care of us," Joseph says. He ended up dropping out of school and giving up on becoming a doctor. He got a job as a security guard. The boys moved to a small, dilapidated house where the rent was minimal. But Joseph says the house is not OK.
JOSEPH: (Speaking Bemba).
EMANUEL: Joseph explains that the roof is so leaky, it rains indoors. They tuck their clothes into a corner to try to keep them dry. When Joseph is not at work, he says he's either doing odd jobs or getting medication for his brothers, who are both HIV-positive. Their clinic is hours away. Sometimes he can't get there, and the boys go a few days without their drugs.
About once a month, an uncle comes from several hours away to check on the boys. He's already supporting his own five children and his late sister's six children. They're all eating one meal a day, often sweet potatoes. When the HIV/AIDS epidemic first hit Africa in the '80s and '90s, the virus often killed people in their childbearing years, leaving a lot of orphans. The U.S.'s massive effort to combat the virus was committed to helping these children. Pastor Billy says the success was incredible, but now the aid cuts have...
CHONDWE: Taken us backwards to a place and a season of hopelessness. There is no clear direction, especially on how we can help child-headed homes.
EMANUEL: Experts say there is not yet data on whether aid cuts have caused a spike in child-headed homes and orphans. The State Department told NPR that the U.S. is the most generous country with humanitarian assistance, writing, if there are such tragic cases happening around the world, it's because the rest of the world is not spending enough money. The statement also said the U.S. has not cut health funding to Zambia. Although, The Foundation for AIDS Research found an almost 20% drop in expenditures last year in Zambia, with some 5,000 staff laid off. Pastor Billy says he's noticed a change. He's trying to help 25 newly orphaned children, up from 11 a couple of months ago.
CHONDWE: So there is a lot of stress and pressure. They don't have enough food where they're staying, no support.
EMANUEL: The one reprieve Joseph gets is watching other kids play soccer.
JOSEPH: (Speaking Bemba).
EMANUEL: "I love soccer," he says. But he's not playing. His sneakers wore through. He says, "if my parents were still alive, I would still be playing. They would've bought me shoes." Still, Joseph says, it makes him happy that at least some kids get to keep being kids.
Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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