00:01Josephine Anjev is one of Nigeria's so-called HIV champions.
00:05For several months, she's walked village streets in Nigeria's Bennu state,
00:09helping those whose access to life-saving medication was disrupted by a USAID freeze.
00:14Some of them, they don't know why they should not miss their treatment,
00:23because they don't understand the implications of the miss of the treatment.
00:28So when you go to their doorsteps and you explain to them the importance of the treatment,
00:35they understand better.
00:37Volunteers like Anjev are one example of how people responded to aid cuts
00:41that upended the global HIV response in 2025.
00:44The US had paid for around 90% of Nigeria's HIV treatment costs and funded health workers.
00:51Other rich states joined the US in cutting aid, forcing a reckoning for those countries that relied on it.
00:56Nigeria introduced a $200 million health funding package within six weeks that included HIV.
01:03The US also issued a waiver for life-saving aid, including antiretrovirals, in February 2025.
01:09But crucially, as the dispensing of drugs collapsed and treatment centres temporarily closed,
01:13volunteers bridge the gaps.
01:16Whenever, wherever they're embarrassed or whatever they talk back to you,
01:21you swallow your pride and then try to work hard to make them better people
01:28and see reason why you are coming to them.
01:31A health agreement for 2026-2030, signed in December, should see the US contribute $2.1 billion
01:38and Nigeria $3 billion.
01:41That deal prioritises the HIV response and commits to putting more patients on treatment programmes,
01:47Nigeria taking over funding in full over the next five years.
01:50Can I ask you to ask them?
01:50To be honest, we're going to have to do this work.
01:50Go ahead.
01:51Go ahead.
01:51Go ahead.
01:51Go ahead.
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