With the recent cuts to USAID funding, residents of Kibera, the largest slum in East Africa, located just south of Nairobi, Kenya, are facing a devastating healthcare crisis. Access to contraception and HIV medication has sharply declined. As a result, teenage pregnancies are rising rapidly, and many people living with HIV can no longer receive the treatment they need.
One of the most overlooked consequences of these cuts is the layoff of Kenya’s Community Health Promoters (CHPs) — frontline workers who played a critical role in HIV prevention and care. Many CHPs, themselves living with HIV, helped others by identifying new cases, reducing stigma, guiding patients to clinics, and ensuring they stayed on treatment.
Now, young mothers in Kibera are speaking out, sharing how the lack of access to contraception has drastically changed their lives , and warning of what can happen when reproductive health services disappear. At the same time, former CHPs are raising their voices to highlight how losing support for HIV medication puts entire communities at risk. Together, they are sounding the alarm: these are not just budget cuts ,they are lives interrupted, and futures at stake.
Binti, a teenage mother, lives with her mother, brother, and sister , who are nearly the same age as her daughter. Binti still attends secondary school and no longer sees the child's father. Kibera, April 2025.
Kibera Hospital, where patients can come for care at any time. April 2025.
Simeon is living with HIV and works as a Community Health Promoter (CHP) at Kibera Hospital. He divides his time between home, the hospital, and his music studio. April 2025.
Marie, a teenage mother, takes care of her daughter with the help of her own mother. She still goes to school and has lost contact with the child’s father. Kibera, April 2025.
