US foreign aid freeze sends shockwaves around the world

The programs in nutrition and in maternal health will certainly be affected. It's definitely a worrying sign to us,

Pokhrel said

If all of this literally comes to a standstill from one day to the next, it will affect people directly,

Klingebiel said

Even if it had the money, it could not manage the logistics and take charge of the infrastructure in such a short [amount] of time to compensate for the whole thing,

said Klingebiel

We definitely know that this is the US people's taxpayers' money,

said Pokhrel from the Nepali Health Ministry

This is massive because the US is the world's largest donor of development aid,

said political scientist Stephan Klingebiel from the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).

Today was the first time in years that there was nobody in the drop-in clinics,

Ntesang said

It was a surprise to us,

said Nepal's Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Population Roshan Pokhrel

Karoline Leavittpress secretary

That’s what this pause is focused on: being good stewards of tax dollars,

Leavitt stated

We are in constant limbo,

said Nozizwe Ntesang, an LGBTQ+ rights activist in Botswana who works with The Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana, LEGABIBO

Uhuru Kenyattaformer President

Let us be self-reliant,

said the former Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, at a health conference in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa

Countries such as China, Russia and others are very happy to move into places where the West is not so strong,

he said

This preparation is fundamental to the humanitarian system and saves enormous amounts of lives, reduces damage and allows for better resilience,

said Harden

Everyone in USAid is in a defensive crouch about how to proceed,

said a US official who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorised to speak

Fews Net is not strictly food aid, so it will need a waiver,

they added

Tuberculosis diagnosis treatment, if that funding is cut off, it will greatly affect the program because there won’t be any diagnosis of such cases and then the medicines, people can’t afford them,

Udoji said

Aaron Motsoaledihealth minister

One thing we want to ascertain is that nobody must stop taking ARVs,

Motsoaledi said

These are families who were anticipating they could get support. … This will stop. … There are children who are HIV-positive, and we always collaborate with their facilities to ensure that they are viral-suppressed. Now they’ll be of high viral load,

the man said

We’re likely to see much of the foreign assistance in the region understood through a migration lens,

said Selee

This isn’t just a funding cut—it’s part of a rollback on LGBTQI+ rights,

said Younes

The crisis is only going to worsen,

the shelter said in a statement