Philanthropic support key to a global partnership driving breakthroughs in HIV prevention and care
Anne Mahon [BScHEc/87], Chancellor Emeritus, will never forget the moment a woman named Joyce Adhiambo looked her in the eye and said quietly: “I have three pills left.”
Adhiambo is an HIV‑positive peer leader at Kenya’s Sex Worker Outreach Program (SWOP), a program that provides HIV treatment to Adhiambo and thousands of other people in Nairobi, Kenya. The clinics also form the foundation of a decades‑long research partnership between the University of Manitoba (UM) and the University of Nairobi (UN), advancing global knowledge on HIV prevention while maintaining deep respect for the communities they serve.
Adhiambo explained that she wasn’t sure whether she would receive her antiretroviral medications the next month, or ever again.
It was January 2025, and the U.S. administration had just announced it was cutting SWOP’s $1.6 million USD in funding through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Mahon was standing inside a SWOP clinic at the exact moment the news was unfolding.
She had chosen to visit Kenya, paying her own way, to see UM’s world-renowned work in action. She saw firsthand that for the sex workers, LGBTQ+ community members and other marginalized people who rely on SWOP, the loss of funding wasn’t abstract – it was life‑threatening.
Mahon returned home and began talking in earnest with her husband Paul [BComm(Hons)/86] and with Keith Fowke [BSc(Hons)/88, PhD/95], head of UM’s Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Department and a longtime partner in SWOP’s work, about how they could help.
In November 2025, the Mahon Family Foundation committed a $1 million pledge to the SWOP/Majengo Clinic Humanitarian Fund. Their gift is helping stabilize clinic operations in the wake of the funding cuts, ensuring that life‑saving care continues uninterrupted while long‑term funding solutions are developed.
“Because I was there and I looked in the eyes of people who have benefited from a program that was potentially being taken away, I saw that the university was doing research that is ultimately good for society,” says Mahon. “I was struck by the compassion woven into every interaction, how research and care were inseparable. The clinic not only gathers critical scientific data from the research participants but also provides access to good healthcare that they would not have received otherwise.”
But as the Mahons emphasize, the real story is not their generosity – it’s the impact.
“You could give because it's going to save lives today through sustained treatment. You could also give because the university is doing important research that if sustained can improve longer term health outcomes,” says Mahon’s husband Paul. “What’s great about this program is that it is doing both – helping save lives today through treatments and delivering research that will help to deliver better long-term health solutions.”
SWOP has been a crucial health lifeline for marginalized communities since 2008, providing free, stigma‑free HIV care to approximately 50,000 patients each year. Without SWOP, many patients may have to turn to facilities where discrimination is common. In addition, the cuts also jeopardize UM’s long-standing research partnership, as SWOP clinics are integral for recruiting research participants and losing them will hinder ongoing studies.
“This is social justice-based research, and I feel that this is social justice-based philanthropy as well," says Mahon. “Because while it’s about research that the university is conducting and the longevity of having had some of these sex workers being part of this research group for 40 years, it's also about trying to create some equity where there has been no equity.”
She was particularly moved by the peer educators, sex workers trained to support others in their community. Many earn only about $100 CAD a month from their work, but by becoming peer mentors, they can double that income while contributing to public health and community empowerment.
The gift helps ensure this essential model – care delivered with community – can continue.
The Mahons also acknowledge a new global reality: governments are investing less in international health initiatives, leaving vulnerable populations exposed.
“If we can’t count on the same government funding,” says Paul, “it calls on others with resources to help sustain systems that are really important to the vulnerable.”
But he believes data and outcomes matter too.
“Lots of people give with their hearts, but lots also want to see proof,” he adds. “SWOP offers both. Evidence‑based research that is clearly communicated through powerful human stories and rigorously documented impact.”
The Mahons describe their pledge as providing both immediate relief and long‑term stability, supporting operations today while safeguarding research that could change global HIV care tomorrow. They hope their gift inspires others to step forward, not out of obligation, but out of shared humanity.
As Paul says, “These are treatments that are keeping people alive. This research is helping to improve long-term health outcomes. Absent these things, people will die. There’s a humanity to it.”
And the ripple effect is enormous.
“When I was there, I saw that the need is so great and the poverty is so rampant,” says Mahon. "For every dollar you give, there is a three‑fold benefit. There are lives saved today, research breakthroughs for tomorrow and empowerment and dignity for generations.”
Their message is simple: When systems fail, people don’t have to.
If you would like to help, you can give to the Majengo Clinic Fund here.
What does a future fuelled by generosity look like? It’s in the faces of new graduates with big ideas, in bold research solutions for Manitoba and the world, and in community initiatives coming to life in collaborative ways. Here, a legacy of philanthropy is shaping the leaders, innovators and change-makers of tomorrow. Learn how you can get involved.
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