After USAID Cuts, Aid Workers Are Forced Into Sex Work

In Nepal's Hetauda, some of the people who once handed out condoms and ran HIV tests are now the ones selling sex along the highway. The AP follows 28-year-old transgender aid worker Rubi Lama, who spent nine years doing HIV outreach for an NGO funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID)—until President Trump froze funding in 2025 and later dismantled the agency. She is now one of roughly 100 LGBTQ+ former aid workers in Nepal who, left with no realistic employment options, say they have turned to sex work to avoid homelessness and hunger. "She'd give anything to go back to the nonprofit where she once cared for society's most vulnerable," writes reporter Kristen Gelineau. "Now she is the one in need of care, but there is no one left to provide it."

Gelineau details how the cuts rippled far beyond budgets. In Nepal alone, an estimated 35,000 aid workers lost their jobs; one key LGBTQ+ group lost most of its funding, shuttered 20 clinics, and laid off 262 staff. Access to HIV prevention medication, condoms, and testing has plunged, fueling fears of rising infections in a country with high unemployment and widespread stigma against transgender people. Former counselors now describe the nightly violence, coercion, and unprotected sex they endure—with no exit plan. "My life is at risk now," says one. "I fear that I may contract HIV and sexually transmitted infections. I fear being beaten up and harassed by customers. I fear the police taking me away at night. How can I not be afraid? There is risk from all sides." Read the full extensive AP piece, or get more on Gelineau's on-the-ground reporting here.