What does it feel like to save a human life?

The U.S. government looked at the numbers, the budget line items, and cut humanitarian aid to Africa with a chainsaw. DOGE, the techie frat group of cost cutters, gleefully spoke of money saved, not of the human toll and the abandonment of children, families, and communities. It was cold and cruel and morally, if not legally, criminal.

We had seen the success of programs like PEPFAR and USAID in our film work for former client Johnson & Johnson. We had met children who were receiving regular treatment for HIV as well as families who got counseling and, when necessary, financial support for food.

Unless you have been to Africa and met with the grassroots organizations who provide support, you can’t understand how the dire reality of disease and poverty can be transformed, how children can grow into teens and adults, how Africa can be a place of hope and realized potential.

Danai Gurira tells what it was like growing up in Africa in the middle of the AIDS crisis.

Mercy is a young girl impacted by HIV living in a sustainable community of 1,000 other children impacted by HIV.

Local grassroots organizations funded by U.S. humanitarian aid helped young women at risk for HIV.

Access to HIV meds helped Clinton fight the disease and be a teenager.