Trump Aid Cuts: CBC hit severely as patients’ lives at stake, staff risk losing jobs

By Hans Ngala

The Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) has begun feeling the impact of Donald Trump’s executive order to freeze all foreign aid.
The CBC through its Health Services has been receiving funding through PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) to provide anti-retroviral medication for HIV patients.
CBC Health Services employees under the HIV-Free Project have been told they can expect to go for up to four months without salaries.
In a document that CNA obtained a copy of, the former Director of CBC Health Services and the HIV-Free Country Director, Professor Tih Pius said to staff:
“As you are aware, there is a change in the US government. The new president of the USA, Donald Trump took up services this month already. It is a normal tradition in the US government to do a system assessment within the first months of taking over. The assessment requires a shutdown of activities”.
Professor Tih went on to explain that while the assessment is going on for four months, “We shall be unable to pay salaries for January 2025…to April 2025”.
It remains unclear what the outcome of this assessment will be. Will Trump’s government decide to terminate funding altogether throughout his four years in office, or will he decide to continue funding the CBC via its HIV-Free program?
It is also unclear how HIV patients will pay for their medication if Trump decides not to continue funding the free treatment for antiretrovirals. There are fears that patient’s lives would be at risk and the disease (which has been largely contained over the last few decades), could resurge and become an even bigger public health concern, requiring even more funding to contain.