How did Anja Giphart learn that more than 350,000 people who depend on her organization to treat their HIV would be denied that life-saving care, effective immediately? An email announcing that the work was “being terminated for convenience and the interests of the U.S. Government,” all but ensuring that, among other things, scores of women will give birth to children who then die of AIDS. The notice, obtained by Salon, ended with the sign off: “Thank you for partnering with USAID and God Bless America.”
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, where Giphart serves as acting president, is named after its founder, who in 1981 contracted HIV from a contaminated blood transfusion and then unknowingly passed it to her infant daughter. She died in 1994 after creating the foundation to help stop the spread of HIV from mothers to their children.
