It's considered this where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, a story about

changes in U.S. foreign aid and their impact, a story that begins in Soweto Township, South Africa.

Melda has a leaky roof. Every time it rains, water seeps in under the door of her house onto the dirt floor.

Melda asks that we refer to her only by her first name. She and one of her five children,

or HIV positive, which still comes with stigma where she lives.

She roots through a pile near a mattress on the floor and pulls out two cards that give her access to treatments.

So she's showing me her green TB clinic card as well as her ARV treatment card.

In South Africa, the country with the largest number of people with HIV, the AIDS epidemic is a lot more manageable than it once was.

That's thanks in part to advances like ARVs or anti-retroviral drugs that keep HIV suppressed.

Melda and her child take pills every day at 8 p.m. to keep the virus at bay.

When Melda contracted HIV, she struggled to even get help from a nearby clinic.

She went back four times, she says, but couldn't get help, until she met Marissa.

Marissa is Marissa Mutswalitsani, a community health care worker from an organization called Sia Nakekela.

It translates to we care.

Community health workers like Marissa help connect people to medical care, though they also

provide more holistic counsel for those who need it, like with hygiene or access to food.

That job has become much harder since early 2025.

Sometimes you come here, assist with cleaning.

But now because of the on and off, on and off, I hardly come.

We care was largely supported by the U.S. government

and specifically by the president's emergency plan for AIDS relief.

Pepfar is credited with saving 26 million lives since it launched in 2003,

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