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STORY: UNAIDS / ESWATINI HIV FUNDING CUTS
TRT: 04:12
SOURCE: UNAIDS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: MAY 2025, ESWATINI
1. Aerial shot, countryside
2. Aerial shot, rural road
3. Wide shot, teens in school uniforms walking along dirt road
4. Wide shot, exterior of Luyengo clinic
5. Close up, sign of clinic
6. Med shot, NERCHA Eswatini Executive Director Dr. Nondumiso Ncube at her desk
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Nondumiso Ncube, Executive Director, National Emergency Response
Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA), Eswatini:
“We are focusing on the priority populations, which is men who have sex with men, female sex workers as well as our vulnerable populations like our adolescent girls and young women.”
8. Close up, hands
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Nondumiso Ncube, Executive Director, National Emergency Response
Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA), Eswatini:
“They are about three to five times more likely to get new HIV infections compared to their male counterparts.”
10. Close up, hands
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Nondumiso Ncube, Executive Director, National Emergency Response
Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA), Eswatini:
“So, we are very much worried that without the support now, the communities are going to suffer.”
12. Wide shot, woman sitting by entrance of clinic next to PEPFAR sign
13. Close up, PEPFAR sign
14. Wide shot, patients waiting at Luyengo clinic
15. Wide shot, head nurse walking by waiting room
16. Med shot, head nurse reassuring patients
17. Med shot, UNAIDS country director Nuha Cessay at his desk
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Nuha Cessay, Country Director, UNAIDS:
“HIV knows no borders.”
19. Tilt down, Cessay typing
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Nuha Cessay, Country Director, UNAIDS:
“We are not going to be able to generate the strategic information that is needed to inform us in terms of where are the new infections taking place, who is being infected, why are they being infected and how many of them are getting infected. This the kind of value UNAIDS brings into the HIV response.”
21. Close up, woman holding baby
22. Wide shot, exterior of HIV counselling and testing unit
23. Med shot, counsellor addressing people waiting
24. Med shot, HIV testing and counselling office
25. Med shot, young girl leaving office and another woman entering
26. Tilt up, older woman with HIV testing swab in her mouth
27. Various shots, pillboxes of anti-retroviral treatment
28. Various shots, woman walking towards lockers to pick up her HIV treatment
29. Close up, woman tapping her code to collect her prescription
30. Tilt up, woman reaching up to locker 13 and takes a paper bag containing her pills
31. Close up, woman handling two pill boxes
32. Various shots, technician at testing lab at Luyengo clinic, two blood samples sitting in a
tray
33. Close up, blood samples
34. Close up, UNAIDS Eswatini office sign
35. Wide shot, exterior National AIDS Programme office Swaziland
36. Close up, MOH HIV/AIDS sign
37. SOUNDBITE (English) Khanyakwezwe Mabuza, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Health, Eswatini:
“We're running around to say how can we ensure that those who are on treatment, first, they must remain on treatment.”
38. Close up, hands
39. SOUNDBITE (English) Khanyakwezwe Mabuza, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Health, Eswatini:
“We make sure that we don't disrupt the services even if we don’t have the budget as I speak. But we
need to look for money.”
Cutaway shots
40. Pan left, traffic in Mbabane, capital city
41. Various shots, traffic, and people on the streets
42. Wide shot, National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS sign
43. Wide shot, Nompilo Mdluli and another young woman walking down the street in Manzini
44. SOUNDBITE (English) Nompilo Mdluli, Young Woman Living with HIV:
“I am going to actually miss young people coming together and sharing ideas, especially the livelihood part, and also having a mobile clinic come nearby your home just to make your refills for PrEP and ART and also get free condoms, those things really helped Eswatini a lot.”
45. Close up, Mdluli
46. Wide shot, peer educator, Noncedo Khumalo, leading an HIV prevention clinic
47. SOUNDBITE (English) Noncedo Khumalo, Peer Educator, Young Heroes:
“Most of us from this rural community, we do not have the money to access all the services that are provided in the clinics.”
48. Med shot, Khumalo speaking to peers
49. SOUNDBITE (English) Noncedo Khumalo, Peer Educator, Young Heroes:
“When we are together motivating each other to access the services, the people are capacitated to go and get the services.”
50. Med shot, Khumalo speaking to peers
51. SOUNDBITE (English) Noncedo Khumalo, Peer Educator, Young Heroes:
“We need these education sessions where we get the correct information so that we are on the right track.”
52. Various shots, Khumalo speaking to peers
53. Wide shot, peers join Noncedo Khumalo with an end of session cheer
The United States used to fund up to 50 percent of AIDS programmes in Eswatini, one of the countries with the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world at 25 percent. UNAIDS’ new report, AIDS, Crisis, and the Power to Transform, documents the impact funding cuts are having around the world.
HIV is a treatable and preventable disease, but the unprecedented funding cuts have torpedoed the HIV response in many countries.
The HIV pandemic still claims one life every minute. While much progress has been made, there were 1.3 million new HIV infections and 630,000 AIDS-related deaths last year.
Luyengo Clinic in this small southern African country has up to 350 patients a day with a dozen babies tested for HIV. The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) covered 80 percent of the clinic's costs. It has more than 3,000 people living with HIV enrolled on life-saving treatment.
Eswatini saw HIV infections drop by more than 70 percent since 2010 and halving death rates.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Nondumiso Ncube, Executive Director, National Emergency Response
Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA), Eswatini:
“We are focusing on the priority populations, which is men who have sex with men, female sex workers as well as our vulnerable populations like our adolescent girls and young women.”
“They are about three to five times more likely to get new HIV infections compared to their male counterparts.”
“So, we are very much worried that without the support now, the communities are going to suffer.”
Patients feared treatment shortages and they were scared of dying. Treatment has been available, but prevention outreach and staff have been cut.
SOUNDBITE (English) Nuha Cessay, Country Director, UNAIDS:
“HIV knows no borders.”
“We are not going to be able to generate the strategic information that is needed to inform us in terms of where are the new infections taking place, who is being infected, why are they being infected and how many of them are getting infected. This the kind of value UNAIDS brings into the HIV response.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Khanyakwezwe Mabuza, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Health, Eswatini:
“We're running around to say how can we ensure that those who are on treatment, first, they must remain on treatment.”
“We make sure that we don't disrupt the services even if we don’t have the budget as I speak. But we
need to look for money.”
Nompilo Mdluli was born with HIV. Living in rural Eswatini, she benefitted from mobile clinic and health outreach – now halted due to funding cuts.
SOUNDBITE (English) Nompilo Mdluli, Young Woman Living with HIV:
“I am going to actually miss young people coming together and sharing ideas, especially the livelihood part, and also having a mobile clinic come nearby your home just to make your refills for PrEP and ART and also get free condoms, those things really helped Eswatini a lot.”
Peer educator Noncedo Khumalo provided peer counselling to adolescents and young women about how to prevent HIV and about broader sexual and reproductive health at the NGO Young Heroes. She recently lost her job due to US funding cuts.
SOUNDBITE (English) Noncedo Khumalo, Peer Educator, Young Heroes:
“When we are together motivating each other to access the services, the people are capacitated to go and get the services.”
“We need these education sessions where we get the correct information so that we are on the right track.”
UNAIDS estimates that if the world does not act, there could be an additional 6 million new HIV infections and 4 million AIDS-related deaths by 2029. The report also highlights what some countries have done to fill the gaps and how to navigate the future.