The High Cost of Stolen Funds

摘要

Mayanja Lubwama, a 44-year-old HIV-infected man who lives with his wife and four of their six children in a cramped house on the outskirts of Kampala, is one of many Ugandans who were hurt by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria corruption case (see p. 522). "Some of us benefiting from those funds felt very sad," says Lubwama. In many ways, Lubwama, whose wife and eldest son are also infected, is lucky: He started receiving anti-HIV drugs 8 years ago and has responded to the same regimen ever since. But during the time that the Global Fund suspended Uganda's grants, between August and November 2005, Lubwama says the clinic where he gets his anti-HIV drugs had "stock outs." He also had a job working for an HIV/AIDS nongovernmental organization that received Global Fund support; they had to let him go, and the project he worked for never restarted. "All of these projects were stopped because of the Global Fund saga," says Lubwama. And short on cash, Lubwama sometimes had to choose between paying for food for his family or transportation to a clinic to pick up his drugs.