I have heard some version of “Why should I care about kids with AIDS in Africa?” multiple times since the Trump administration announced the dismantling of USAID, a program that spends just 24 cents out of every $100 of gross national income.
Sometimes, the statement is even more blunt: “I don’t care about kids with AIDS in Africa.” It shocks me every time.
Let’s answer the question of why you should care. First and foremost, you should care because these are human beings with worth every bit as great as your own. All major world religions emphasize caring for the poor and treating others as we would like to be treated, but you do not need to be religious to recognize inherent human dignity.
You should care because the costs of “not caring” are paid in human lives. Literally.
You should care because walking away from USAID-funded programs is destroying the soft power the U.S. government has spent decades building, allowing one of our nation’s greatest threats — China — to take our place.
It’s the right thing to do
A child in sub-Saharan Africa has the same worth as a child in downtown Salt Lake City, or Moab or St. George. Treating people with dignity starts with recognizing their worth. And we have a moral obligation to reach out and help those who need help.
For Christians, Christ teaches in the New Testament: “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in. Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” He then follows up with: “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matt. 25:40.)
And when they were not ministered unto, he tells them bluntly, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” (Matt. 25:45; italics added.)
Zakat, the practice of giving to those less fortunate, is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Muslims donate 2.5% of their annual savings, 10% of their investment net profits and a third of the produce or crops from their agricultural efforts. “It’s an obligation, a must,” Abed Ayoub said in a Deseret News article about joint efforts between LDS Humanitarian Services and Islamic Relief USA.
In Judaism, tzedakah is the Hebrew word for charity, “and a pillar upon which the world stands,” according to the Chabad.org website. The word tzedakah means “justice” or “righteousness,” they explain. “In Jewish thought, giving to people in need is not something extra; it’s just the correct, honest thing to do. Our money is not ours. It belongs to God, who has graciously entrusted it to us. It is only right for us to distribute it as He wishes, sharing it with His needy children.”
According to the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, giving (dāna) is an essential Buddhist practice. It is about cultivating generosity, openness and the capacity to embrace others with compassion and love.
And before you ask, no, churches cannot replace the work done by church/government partnerships. Even Bill Gates can’t fill the gap.
The cost in human lives
With the dismantling of USAID, the real cost is in human lives. Just two examples: HIV/AIDS and starvation.
According to the New York Times, earlier this month, the Trump administration dismissed the few remaining health officials who managed programs for more than 500,000 children and more than 600,000 pregnant women with HIV in low-income countries.
The Musk/Trump/DOGE/Rubio slashing of foreign aid has derailed the projected end of the AIDS pandemic and could lead to 4 million extra deaths by 2030.
New figures show the number of AIDS-related deaths could jump from 6 million to 10 million in the next five years unless funding is reinstated, according to forecasts from the UN Aids agency (UNAIDS).
A study in The Lancet released earlier in April estimated that suspending HIV/AIDS relief programs could lead to about 1 million new HIV infections by 2030 and could lead to nearly 500,000 AIDS deaths among children and the orphaning of 2.8 million more. In addition, 600,000 more newborns could be infected with HIV by 2030 — more than double the number originally forecast. The loss of so many babies and children that could have been saved is stunning in its scope.
The cost of first-line HIV medications to keep a person alive is less than 12 cents a day.
Starvation is a second tragic example. The famine in Sudan, for example, is on par with the Ethiopian famine of 1984, with far less media scrutiny. The sudden loss of funding is exacerbating it.
Sudan’s civil war, now in its third year, is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in decades, aid groups say. Last year, the United States gave $830 million in emergency aid, the New York Times reports. Within days of USAID funding being slashed, more than 300 soup kitchens run by Emergency Response Rooms in Khartoum, Sudan, were forced to close.
In spite of assurances that aid is continuing, aid groups on the ground say the aid has not returned. Nicholas Kristof, columnist for the New York Times, countered Elon Musk’s assertion that no lives have been lost due to funding cuts by traveling to Africa to find out for himself. Within days, he already had multiple stories.
He is not the only one outraged and dismayed at the apparent willingness to shove programs for the world’s poorest “into the wood chipper,” as Elon Musk posted on X.
“The bludgeoning of PEPFAR and USAID, one of the most eloquent expressions of American values ever created, might be America’s most spectacular act of self-sabotage in generations,” the musician Bono, a longtime leader in campaigns against global poverty, told Kristof.
Soft power
In the 1980s, political scientist Joseph Nye Jr. coined the term “soft power,” defining it as a “country’s ability to influence others without resorting to coercive pressure.” In practice, that process entails countries projecting their values, ideals and culture across borders to foster goodwill and strengthen partnerships through projects that can include feeding the hungry, healing the sick, educating children, and yes, even music and theater programs.
Foreign aid, then, has been a deliberate effort of the U.S. government to exert soft power. In the 1930 and 1940s, the government began turning to nonprofit organizations as a non-political, non-partisan way to get into countries governmental entities might not be able to.
For example, Albert Einstein helped found the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the 1930s to assist refugees from Nazi Germany like himself. During the Cold War, the IRC was looking for ways to get behind the Iron Curtain. It distributed a million pounds of butter to East Germans. Humanitarian aid? For sure. And also a generous helping of pro-democracy education.
Over the last eight or nine decades, the United States could rightly claim pre-eminence in the soft power space, although China has been increasing its soft power with programs like Belt and Road Initiatives across Africa. Now, with the U.S. walking away from our soft power efforts, China is more than happy to take our place.
Literally within days of the current administration announcing drastic cuts to USAID, China was announcing its replacement efforts.
Fortune reports, for example, that when the U.S. canceled two aid projects in Cambodia in late February — one to encourage child literacy and another to improve nutrition and development for kids under five — China’s aid agency announced funding for programs to achieve almost identical goals just a week later.
Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, said, “It’s a diplomatic gift” to China.
Another example: The response to the recent 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar. Aid cuts significantly limited the U.S. response, but Chinese and Russian teams were among the first to provide emergency response personnel and key supplies. China has pledged an additional $137 million for ongoing earthquake relief needs.
Conclusion
So why should you care about a child in Africa with AIDS? You should care because we have a moral responsibility to care for others. You should care because every child has inherent worth and dignity and is born with the same human potential as any other child. You should care about the global ramifications about flushing decades of work accumulating soft power and influence down the toilet and sending allies and potential allies into the arms of one of our nation’s greatest threats.
You should care because, again, it is the right thing to do.