Behind every funding cut is a Thursday that looks different than it did last month.
Sometimes, it means a mental health session does not happen. An outreach visit is cancelled. Someone misses the chance to get trusted information about HIV prevention or is unable to access a service they were counting on. These moments may seem small on paper, but for someone looking for support, they can make all the difference.
The wider picture tells a similar story. According to a UNAIDS press release published in June 2026, across 62 countries, 38% fewer people received PrEP, a medicine used to prevent HIV, at least once in 2025 than in 2024. That is a drop from 3.3 million people to 2.1 million in just one year. The decline comes as global aid cuts put growing pressure on HIV prevention services, showing how quickly access can be disrupted when funding falls away.
This is not only a global pattern to us. It is something we have lived directly. In 2024, HAF launched two HIV research projects with the Behavioral, Sexual, and Global Health Lab and the University of Ghana, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health through its Fogarty International Center: LAFIYA HIV Self-Testing, launched in April 2024 and intended to run through January 2026, and LAFIYA HIV Status Neutral, a multilevel intervention launched in July 2024 and expected to continue through July 2027, aimed at increasing HIV testing, PrEP, and ART uptake. Both projects supported young gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in Ghana’s slum communities. The HIVST study adapted the Many Men, Many Voices intervention model, an approach with an established track record elsewhere, building HIV self-testing, education, and emotional resilience into one programme to address the intersecting stigma young gay and bisexual men face around sexuality, HIV status, and socioeconomic background.
The scale of that reach is worth stating plainly. For the HIVST study alone, 304 people applied to take part. Of those, 199 did not meet the study’s inclusion criteria, and of the remaining 105 eligible respondents, 60 confirmed their availability and took part, drawn from 24 different communities across Accra, including Chorkor, Labadi, Kasoa, Dome, Jamestown, Dansoman, and Nungua, among others. Alongside this, the study also conducted 40 in-depth interviews: 20 with young gay and bisexual men directly, and 20 with service providers, nurses and staff from community-based organisations who support this population.
The freeze halted not only the intervention itself, but also the essential post-intervention evaluations needed to measure outcomes and inform future policy and programming.
The HIVST study had already completed those interviews and rolled out its intervention with the 60 confirmed participants between February and early March 2025, just as the work began showing promising results, when a sudden freeze in U.S. foreign aid cut the funding off, not because the work had failed, but because the money simply disappeared.
Without that funding, we cannot sustain HIV testing kits, education sessions, linkage to care, or psychosocial support for people living with HIV, jeopardising our contribution to the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets: ensuring that 95% of people living with HIV know their status, 95% of those diagnosed receive sustained treatment, and 95% of those on treatment achieve viral suppression. The toll has also reached our own team, many of whom come from the very communities we serve. Their sense of purpose and stability has been shaken, and relationships built over years of service now risk unravelling under the weight of insecurity and burnout.
At Hope Alliance Foundation, we see why continued access matters. Whether it is supporting someone to access SRHR services, providing psychosocial support or connecting people with trusted care, the goal has always been the same: making sure LGBTQIA+ communities can access the support they need with dignity and without fear. That has not changed, even when the funding landscape has.
Like many organisations in this space, we have had to navigate a difficult and shifting environment. Since our founding in 2012, we have seen what consistent presence means to the people we serve. We have adapted, strengthened partnerships and continued looking for practical ways to support our communities because the need does not disappear when funding becomes uncertain.
Real impact is not only measured by the number of programmes delivered. Sometimes it is the conversation that helps someone ask for support. It is the referral that connects a person to care. It is the reassurance of knowing there is a place to turn when they need it. Or it is the confidence someone gains after finding a space where they are welcomed and respected.
This is not merely pausing a set of programmes. It is pausing lives, progress, and the fight for equity in healthcare.
Projects like LAFIYA do more than deliver HIV services. They create safe spaces, affirm identity, and offer hope. Reinstating and protecting funding for work like this is not just a matter of charity, it is a matter of justice and global solidarity.
That is why continued support matters. Each partnership, contribution and person who chooses to stand with us helps keep essential services within reach, today and for those who will need them tomorrow.
As we seek alternative funding sources and support, our message to donors, policymakers, and partners is clear: this work must not be abandoned. If you would like to help us continue reaching LGBTQIA+ communities, explore a partnership with us, or simply find out more, we would love to hear from you. Email info@hopealliancefoundation.org or call +233 (0) 531 288 854.