By Chinasaokwu Helen Okoro
A men’s health clinic in Johannesburg prepared on Tuesday to shut its doors due to U.S. foreign aid funding freeze.
It was somber day at the Engage men’s clinic as movers loaded a large auction truck with furniture and various office supplies.
The USAID and Pepfar funded organisation provided comprehensive HIV treatment for the LGBTQI+ community.
With its closure, concerns have surfaced over how members of the community will gain access to services and treatment they desperately need.
Engage will be auctioning off their assets to recoup whatever monies they can in order to pay the more the 70 employees who are now out of a job.
Joseph Adams, who is the project manager of OUT LGBT Wellbeing program on behalf of Engage Men’s Health clinic, said staff members were placed on unpaid leave in January when the Trumps administration halted all Pepfar funding.
The workers will now join the millions of South Africans who struggle to find employment.
“We have clinicians, we have lay people, administration people, etc. that come here every day. This is their bread and butter, but it’s also what they strived to achieve at the end of the day,” he stressed.
“To tell them that you no longer have a job… it’s difficult,” he added.
Trump administration freezes on U.S. foreign aid have also led many United Nations organizations to cut staff, budgets and services in places as diverse as Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine and far beyond.
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