Additional Context: This account was shared by a clinical officer in Uganda: “When that termination came in, the landlords for such premises [used for community drug distribution] were notified and they [rented] out these premises afterwards. So, by the time we came back [after the PEPFAR waiver], they were not there. So many people were accessing services from that spot. Some of them cannot even be traced. Just imagine you had clients who have been accessing services from a given point for over six years and…[suddenly]…you cannot trace them. It is really hard.”

This information was first published in an August 2025 research brief by Physicians for Human Rights entitled "On the Brink of Catastrophe: U.S. Foreign Aid Disruption to HIV Services in Tanzania and Uganda.” This research brief draws on 29 oral history interviews, including five focus groups, with doctors, nurses, peer counselors, people living with HIV, key population members, and non-governmental organization staff conducted in Tanzania and Uganda in April 2025. To document the impacts of the U.S. foreign aid freeze and HIV funding cuts, the multidisciplinary study team used purposive and snowball sampling in Moshi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Fort Portal, Kampala, Kasese, and Tororo, Uganda. Participants had explicit control over how personal information was shared, with consent and demographic forms tailored to individual preferences. 

Source: Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)