I can't let go just yet

Originally published on Before It Fades Substack (31 Oct 2025)

"Why do you do this work? What motivates you to continue? What’s next?..."

I asked these questions to over 100 people on the frontlines of the HIV response across seven African countries. I wanted to understand the human story of this unfinished fight – now defined by abrupt cuts, terminated programs, and the people who continue holding the line.

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Perhaps by asking these questions to others, it would help me make sense of them for myself at a time when my own career in international development was being upended.

Jacquelain had injected drugs for 30 years. He contracted HIV, served time in prison, and was once told he wouldn’t live long enough to see freedom. Now, with an undetectable viral load, he still battles hepatitis but remains determined. When I visited him in Mauritius, his mother carried in coffee and tea as he pointed to a framed photo of his younger self – before injecting, before HIV, before prison. “I share my story,” he said, “so the younger ones can learn.”