Cheyenne Suarez

Aid, health groups concerned about ‘stop work’ order, despite US aid freeze waiver

Article (news)

Reuters Wires

Health and humanitarian groups around the world were still uncertain on Wednesday if and how they could resume work after the United States issued a waiver for &quot;life-saving&quot; assistance in President Donald Trump&#x27;s freeze on US foreign aid.Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued the waiver on Tuesday night after aid groups worldwide warned that the blanket ban on foreign aid funding and activity for 90 days had put millions of lives at risk.Trump imposed the freeze within hours of taking office on Jan. 20, part of a larger-scale effort to align international aid with his &quot;America First&quot; agenda.The waiver excluded services like abortion, gender, diversity, transgender and non-life saving work.UNAIDS, the United Nations agency leading the fight against HIV, said on Wednesday the waiver included HIV treatment, and that it would lobby for other HIV services to be included too, including prevention.However, officials from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), aid groups, and health workers in South Africa, told Reuters they were unclear what the waiver meant for their work or if it was in effect, a full reversal of previous orders telling them to stop work immediately.In Johannesburg and Cape Town, clinics treating HIV patients and several health centres for transgender people were shuttered on Tuesday and remained closed on Wednesday while organizations sought more guidance.Those clinics are run by South Africa&#x27;s Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, which is part of the Wits Health Consortium, a research organization leading several USAID-funded programs.“It&#x27;s ridiculous and it&#x27;s quite scary, because it all revolves around money,&quot; transgender woman Chloe Fortune said, standing outside the closed clinic.The United States is the largest single donor of aid globally. In fiscal year 2023, it disbursed $72 billion in assistance.<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/1/27/trump-s-us-aid-freeze-to-not-have-much-direct-impact-on-ph-neda-1519">Trump’s US aid freeze to not have much direct impact on PH: NEDA</a> <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/1/25/us-aid-freeze-unlikely-to-severely-affect-ph-dfa-exec-1409">US aid freeze unlikely to &#x27;severely affect&#x27; PH: DFA exec</a></div><div>(Production: Sisipho Skweyiya, Shafiek Tassiem, Thando Hlophe)</div>

Health and humanitarian groups around the world were still uncertain on Wednesday if and how they could resume work after the United States issued a waiver for "life-saving" assistance in President Donald Trump's freeze on U.S. foreign aid.

Health and humanitarian groups around the world were still uncertain on Wednesday if and how they could resume work after the United States issued a waiver for "life-saving" assistance in President Donald Trump's freeze on U.S. foreign aid.

Aid, health groups concerned about ‘stop work’ order, despite US aid freeze waiver

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Aid, health groups concerned about ‘stop work’ order, despite US aid freeze waiver

Reuters

Published Jan 30, 2025 09:54 AM PHT

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