In Eswatini, HIV -positive people suspended from the American aid cuts – Liberation

The small box filled with pills contains three months of treatment, and peace of mind. This morning, Philile Dlamini came to collect his antiretroviral drugs (ARV). When she slips them into her bag, she feels relieved. She was not sure they would be available or if she should pay to get them. With the little that she wins by selling candy at the edge of an earthcate, in front of a school, she should have left her hands empty. From The announcement of the American funding for international aidshe feels suspended: « When I read the news, I checked the conditions for my life insurance. » Mother of four, HIV positive children, has been under treatment for twenty years.

Eswatini, a small country in southern Africa – formerly named Swaziland – wedged between Mozambique and South Africa, is known for its eccentric king, Mswati III, the last absolute monarch in Africa, and for its rate of prevalence of AIDS, the highest in the planet: among its population of just over 1 million inhabitants, a quarter of adults live with HIV. “HIV has decimated the population. People were infected, often not diagnosed, they fell ill and they died. In 2004, L