JUBA, South Sudan –
As the world’s richest men slash American aid for the world’s poorest children, they insist that all is well. “No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding,” Elon Musk said. “No one.”
That is not true. In South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries, the efforts by Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump are already leading children to die.
Peter Donde was a 10-year-old infected with HIV from his mother during childbirth. But American aid kept Peter strong, even as his parents died from AIDS. A program started by former U.S. President George W. Bush called PEPFAR (U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) saved 26 million lives from AIDS — and one was Peter’s.
