Funding crisis hits HIV and TB health services

More than two months after the abrupt withdrawal of USAid funding left nearly 700 health-care workers at risk and essential HIV and TB services in crisis, vulnerable children are now facing the most devastating fallout yet.

- NAMHLA MONAKALI

In a follow-up to an 11 March report in City Vision, new testimony from affected families reveals the human cost of the R360 million shortfall. Community-based organisations such as Empilweni, funded through the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programme of the Networking HIV/Aids Community of Southern Africa (Nacosa), are scaling back or shutting down, leaving children with HIV without psychosocial support, medical linkage or basic legal documentation. "These are not just numbers," said Vuyi Skiti, head of monitoring and evaluation at Nacosa. "These are children's lives, teens finding out their HIV status for the first time, caregivers holding families together. If w