The Global Fund’s announcement to discontinue funding HIV, tuberculosis and malaria programs until 2014 due to donor shortfalls sent shockwaves the world-over. Zambia has not been spared from the withdrawal of funding, which is being felt especially by grassroots communities who are hardest hit.
Zambia like many countries in the sub-Saharan region was heavily dependent on the Global Fund. Before the announcement of the cancellation was made, the Zambia National AIDS Network (ZNAN) had not received funding for close to two years because of the scandals of financial mismanagement by lead agencies and sub-recipients.
To understand what the cancellation of Round 11 will mean for people living with HIV I interviewed Mercy Mumba, a 27-year-old mother of three who is co-infected with TB and HIV. Mercy’s husband vanished after she revealed her HIV positive status almost three-years-ago.
I arrived at the one-roomed house she is renting. She told me she had not eaten anything and as a result was feeling weak as she had just taken her medication a few minutes earlier.
When asked about the impact dwindling funds are having on her life, she replied: “I used to be given medicines for three months but now it has been reduced to one month. They have not mentioned anything to us, but I knew in my heart that there was something wrong with the whole system.
“I cannot imagine what will become of me because I lost my job three days ago.”
Mercy says the elderly women she had been working for as a maid sacked her when she revealed her HIV status. She had been given permission from her boss to go the clinic but when she was advised to go back for her CD4 count the following day she was forced to disclose and was asked to leave. Mercy has not been given her terminal pay of US$60 and is now in danger of being thrown out of her house if her-rent remains unpaid by the end of February.
When asked what alternative method could be found to ensure that people like herself continue getting medication she gave a sigh and said that levying people living with HIV and AIDS a monthly fee of US$1 would help in some way while the government was looking at alternative ways of raising money.
She added she could not imagine a life with out antiretrovirals as it would spell the end of her life. “Better for me to lie on an empty tummy than miss my medication for a number of days.”
Mercy’s final words were one of hope that the government and other stakeholders would come up with a solution soon and save people’s lives.
