‘Like being on the Titanic’: US aid workers fear there is no future in helping others

A United States Agency for International Development worker, second from right, joins supporters outside the USAid's Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs office, in Washington, after retrieving her personal belongings, on 21 February. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

In a village in Lesotho, a small country in southern Africa, Sasha teaches hundreds of children at a local primary school. A significant part of her work as an education volunteer at the US Peace Corps is to educate her students about HIV prevention. Almost a quarter of Lesotho’s 2.3 million population lives with HIV, giving it the second-highest level of HIV infection in the world.

At the beginning of February, Donald Trump halted virtually all US foreign aid. The 90-day pause left many agencies scrambling to follow the new guidance, affecting programs such as the one Sasha works for. In Lesotho, she and other volunteers work to mitigate the effects of HIV/Aids stigma through grant-funded programs like a soccer camp. All of that stopped.