Bangkok, Thailand – At the end of January, Cambodia’s Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance was unexpectedly informed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that all funding for its tuberculosis programme had been put on hold for 90 days.KHANA, as the NGO is more commonly known, detects about 10,000 tuberculosis (TB) cases each year, providing preventive treatment to some 10,000 close contacts and medical care for some 300 rural patients, according to executive director, Choub Sok Chamreun.
With funding drying up, many rural Cambodians will soon lose care, Chamreun said.
“Within the suspension period, these people will have a service interruption because we have been asked to stop work,” Chamreun told Al Jazeera from Phnom Penh.
“We expect these people will not have services, and they could lose follow-up for their TB treatment.”
“Normally … they receive support for treatment, mental health support, and regular follow-ups because [they] are living in rural communities, so they depend very much on the support from our community health workers,” he added. Advertisement
KHANA is just one of many charities and nonprofit organisations across Southeast Asia that are fearful for their work as US President Donald Trump moves to effectively abolish USAID under a radical cost-cutting drive spearheaded by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
As the world’s largest single provider of humanitarian aid, USAID last year allocated $8 …
