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Saarbrücken woman fights against HIV: The health of our future is at stake!
Yasmin Kahumuza, Saarbrücken resident and youth ambassador, is fighting for global health and development cooperation in 2025.
Saarbrücken woman fights against HIV: The health of our future is at stake!
In 2025, a remarkable young woman from Saarbrücken, Yasmin Kahumuza, became involved as a youth ambassador for the One organization. This international, non-profit organization promotes development cooperation and global health. Kahumuza, who not only runs a hairdresser's shop in Saarbrücken but is also studying to be a teacher, is the only youth ambassador in Saarland. She is one of over 50 youth ambassadors worldwide who actively support political processes and bring important issues to the public. The Saarbrücken newspaper reports that Kahumuza is particularly motivated because her mother lives with HIV. This has had a deep impact on her and underlines the value of a functioning health system for healthy development.
“Health is a basic human right,” said Kahumuza. She highlights that despite progress on HIV/AIDS, financial cuts are jeopardizing achievements. There are alarming warnings from experts pointing to a possible increase in HIV infections and related deaths if countermeasures are not taken. 2025 is a year of cuts in development cooperation. However, Germany has pledged one billion euros for the next three years, which is, however, 300 million euros less than before. Financial resources for development cooperation have been falling for years, with ten billion euros planned for 2026.
Political activity and recognition
Kahumuza also raised her voice in the Bundestag and spoke about budget decisions and their impact on cooperation with countries in the Global South. Her personal experiences are incorporated into her messages to illustrate the urgency of stable medical care. It is all the better that their commitment was recently recognized in a tribute on the cover of “ZEIT Campus” magazine. At the same time, the application phase for new youth ambassadors at One is currently underway.
Commitment to global health
The challenges in global health, as denounced by Kahumuza, are also a central concern of the Global Health Working Group, as shown on gha.health is to be read. This is about creating synergies and acting as a co-creator of the global health agenda. At high-level meetings with political decision-makers, the new role of the WHO in the global health architecture and the strategy of the new German government will be discussed.
Such initiatives have been called for for years, if the reports from the Action Alliance Against AIDS are to be believed. This confirmed Presseportal.de in a recent call that called for strengthening development cooperation and global health, especially against the backdrop of the coalition negotiations between the CDU/CSU and the SPD. The demands include, among other things, a fair financial contribution from Germany to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
The effort is under pressure from national egoism that risks jeopardizing HIV treatment for 20 million people in the global south. It remains to be hoped that the commitment of young people like Yasmin Kahumuza and the voices of activists and health professionals will help change the course of political decisions for the better.