LoveYourself clarifies essential services to 'continue to operate as usual' amid foreign aid suspension
LoveYourself Inc., a non-governmental organization focused on HIV prevention, care, and support in the country, reassured the public that its essential services will continue uninterrupted amid news of suspension of foreign aid.
"We have noticed some reports suggesting that LoveYourself is pausing certain services. We want to clarify that this is not accurate," the NGO wrote in a statement.
It added, "All our essential services, including HIV testing, treatment, TransHealth, PrEP, and SelfCare (self-test kits), continue to operate as usual."
LoveYourself also underscored that although services such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEp) and self-care services, remain free, the delivery of these services will now incur a fee due to the stop-work order or the recent 90-day suspension of U.S. foreign aid initiated by U.S. president Donald Trump.
Hence, paid staff supported by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) were affected.
Nonetheless, the organization assured its clients that it would look for alternative solutions to assist the patients' needs.
"We are actively working to support our affected staff during this period and are exploring alternative solutions to resume free delivery services as soon as possible."
The statement came after the organization also released a statement on the stop-work order. It said its essential services, including HIV testing, treatment, and TransHealth, remain unaffected as they are "not reliant on foreign aid, and we remain fully committed to supporting our community without interruption."
However, they stated that the order did affect key innovations they've been working on, including free PrEP, self-testing kits, and campaigns aimed at increasing awareness and scaling up life-saving services.
While empathizing with the global and local organizations facing similar setbacks, LoveYourself also called out "decision-makers" to "revisit and act quickly on this matter" as "the urgency to save lives cannot be overstated."
"Every delay affects real people, real families, and real futures," they emphasized.
"To the Philippine government, this is your moment to step up and partner with civil society organizations. By working together, we can scale up programs, foster innovation, and fill the gaps left by international funding uncertainties."
With the hope of exploring new ways to ensure "financial sustainability" while delivering its services, LoveYourself also partnered with LuxeCare, its social enterprise model. According to them, this will augment services in sexual health, wellness, aesthetics, and diagnostics.
'This is a matter of life or death'
In a statement, The International AIDS Society (IAS) said that Trump's order on a 90-day pause in foreign development assistance, including the frozen funding to PEPFAR and stop-work order for existing grants and contracts, will place people between life or death.
"This is a matter of life or death," IAS President Beatriz Grinsztejn said in a statement.
"PEPFAR provides lifesaving antiretrovirals for more than 20 million people – and stopping its funding essentially stops their HIV treatment. If that happens, people are going to die and HIV will resurge," she explained, adding that the immediate halting of these services "makes no sense" especially since the country is aiming for global progress to end HIV.
In case you didn't know, the US government has invested over $110 billion (over P58 billion) in the global HIV/AIDS response through PEPFAR.
According to its website, it is the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history that will save 26 million lives by "preventing millions of HIV infections and accelerating progress toward controlling the global HIV/AIDS pandemic in more than 50 countries."
