All posts tagged: USAID

On Mother’s Day, being pro-life means helping babies in developing countries live

On Mother’s Day, being pro-life means helping babies in developing countries live

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — As a mom-to-be, this Mother’s Day feels different. Feeling my son’s little kicks, I already sense the deep, instinctual love for this life growing inside of me and the desire for him to flourish. I have always been a strongly pro-life evangelical Christian, but experiencing this bond between a mother and her unborn child has clarified what it truly means to value life. At our 20-week anatomy scan, my husband and I learned that our son would be born with complications that would require medical care. The weeks that followed were full of tears, doctor’s visits and consultations, but also deep gratitude for the treatment options that would allow our son to live a full life. What steadied us was access — specialists, options, follow-up care. That’s exactly what millions of moms don’t have. Through my work in global health, I know that many mothers across the world lack access to treatment for conditions that doctors know how to address. As I considered the little life in my womb, this stark reality clarified …

USAID Whistleblower Says It Was Even Worse Than People Knew

USAID Whistleblower Says It Was Even Worse Than People Knew

Published by skeptic

When billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) swept through government in the first months of 2025, there was one agency that felt the full force of the group’s desire to move fast and break things: the US Agency for International Development (USAID). DOGE’s mandate was to cut contracts and government spending in a futile quest to reduce the federal deficit by $2 trillion. On January 28, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver for “lifesaving humanitarian assistance,” which should have allowed money for critical projects to continue to flow. But according to Nicholas Enrich, who was then the acting assistant administrator for global health, that’s not what happened. By early February, the group had taken over the agency, shut down its emails, and left tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid funding in limbo. Within days, the agency’s staff had been cut from 10,000 to 300, and by July the agency had been merged with the State Department. According to estimates from Boston University, more than 700,000 people died …

Deportations surge, aid collapses and faith groups in Latin America struggle to respond

Deportations surge, aid collapses and faith groups in Latin America struggle to respond

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — At least once a week, relief workers from Jesuit Refugee Service Mexico see a grim routine: Newly arrived deportees step off planes in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, near Mexico’s southern border, still wearing gray detention uniforms issued in the United States. Transported in handcuffs and stripped of their belongings, they are released onto the street with little more than the clothes they are wearing. Some appear confused. Many do not know where they are. “People arrive with nothing — no money, no way to move and no network to help them,” said Karen Pérez, country director of Jesuit Refugee Service Mexico, or JRS-MX. Her staff, which operates from three offices across Mexico, has shrunk from 70 to 28 people in the past year because of U.S. federal funding cuts to humanitarian aid, leaving the group struggling to meet the growing needs of deportees. Similar organizations across Latin America have also faced budget blows. Since January 2025, the Trump administration has dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), prompting a lawsuit from organizations such as …

Sledgehammer Reform: USAID on the Chopping Block

Sledgehammer Reform: USAID on the Chopping Block

Published by Sam Flores

.pod-stream-buttons { display: flex; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; } .post-thumbnail { display: none; } .stream-button { flex: 1 1; margin-right: 0.5rem; } .stream-button:last-child { margin-right: 0; } .stream-button a { display: flex; } .stream-button object, .stream-button img { width: 100%; height: 100%; } .wp-remixd-voice-wrapper { display: none !important; }   RNS — USAID has been a pillar of American foreign policy and humanitarian relief for over 60 years, but under the Trump administration’s latest push for government downsizing — driven in part by Elon Musk’s influence — the agency is facing deep cuts that could disrupt life-saving aid in over 100 countries. What does this mean for the millions of people who rely on U.S. support for clean water, health care and disaster relief? And how are faith-based organizations, some of the biggest USAID partners, preparing for a future with drastically reduced funding? In this episode of Complexified, Amanda Henderson sits down with former USAID official Adam Nicholas Phillips to explore the history, purpose and political pressures surrounding USAID, from its Cold War origins to …

One year later, how Trump’s USAID cuts are affecting the world

One year later, how Trump’s USAID cuts are affecting the world

Published by Sam Flores

In January 2025, when President Donald Trump took office a second time, one of his first actions was to slash U.S. foreign aid. The process started with a 90-day review, but in early February 2025, the USAID website was taken down. At the time, billionaire Elon Musk, who was brought on as a “special government employee,” said they spent the weekend “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” By March, 83 percent of USAID programs ceased to exist. These abrupt changes caused chaos among nongovernmental organizations worldwide — including organizations that help women in Africa access family-planning information and resources. One year later, people on the ground are still feeling the impact of the abrupt and drastic cuts. Pester Siraha, country director of MSI Zimbabwe — which is now the only NGO providing family planning services at scale in Zimbabwe following the closure of other USAID-supported organizations — told Salon in a video call she wishes more people understood the chaos this has caused. The abrupt and significant funding cuts over the last year have been …

HIV vaccine trial faces death due to USAID cuts. Can it survive? : NPR

HIV vaccine trial faces death due to USAID cuts. Can it survive? : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Health workers including community liaison officer Amelia Mfiki (far left) discuss the recruitment of participants for a new HIV vaccine trial in the township of Philippi Village in Cape Town, South Africa. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption toggle caption Tommy Trenchard for NPR Everything had been leading to the meeting early last year in Zanzibar, a tropical archipelago off the east coast of Africa. A hundred researchers, clinicians and other experts on HIV from across Africa and beyond were there to discuss big plans — the development of an innovative vaccine on the continent that could prevent the disease, which continues to infect and kill people disproportionately in sub-Saharan Africa. And they had big money to do it. This group, called the BRILLIANT Consortium, had landed a $45 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2023. “I mean, it’s unprecedented,” says Nono Mkhize, a senior medical scientist with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Johannesburg, “having a consortium that is made up of African scientists working toward an …