The cuts of US foreign assistance have caused a sense of hopelessness among some vulnerable populations living with HIV. A transgender woman in Tanzania described “giving up” on life because she felt there was no one now to safeguard her wellbeing.

Date: 8/25

Region: Africa

Country: Tanzania

Topic: Gender Equality & Inclusion, Health

Policy Lens: Global Health Security, Moral Leadership

Additional Context: “Another thing is that I feel like I’m giving up.... Sometimes I just look at my medication and put it down.... I feel like I have given up on life, and I think to myself, ‘Maybe I should just die.’” -Transgender woman living with HIV, Tanzania

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)