Faith-Based Groups Struggle After USAID HIV Funding Cuts in Rural Kenya
One year after the U.S. ended USAID operations and cut HIV funding, faith-based health organizations in rural Kenya are losing contact with patients who depend on them for antiretroviral treatment. Church-run clinics that once received U.S. support are now operating with reduced staff and supplies.
A year after the United States shut down USAID and cut HIV funding, the effects are showing up in the most remote corners of rural Kenya. Faith-based health organizations that once relied on that funding are struggling to maintain contact with patients who need antiretroviral treatment to stay alive.
Church-run clinics in western Kenya have lost staff, reduced hours, and in some cases closed satellite locations that served patients in areas with no other health options. Community health workers who were paid through USAID-funded programs have stopped working. Without them, clinics have no way to track patients who miss appointments or run out of medication.
Sister Agnes Wanjiku runs a clinic attached to a Catholic mission in Kisumu County. She said the clinic used to follow up with every patient who missed a visit. Now, with no community health workers and no fuel budget for outreach vehicles, patients who stop coming simply disappear from the records. She does not know if they are alive.
Kenya has one of the largest HIV-positive populations in the world. The country has made significant progress in reducing transmission and keeping people on treatment over the past two decades, much of it funded by the U.S. government through PEPFAR and USAID programs. Faith-based organizations delivered a large share of those services, particularly in rural areas where government clinics are scarce.
The funding cuts were part of a broader U.S. foreign aid reduction that took effect in early 2025. Health advocates warned at the time that the cuts would cause preventable deaths. Church leaders in Kenya and other affected countries have appealed to Congress and to private donors to fill the gap, but the scale of the need far exceeds what private charity can cover.
