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Abdul Fatorma, executive director of the Human Rights and International Development campaign, had been working to expand democracy in Sierra Leone for seven years.
The civil war had affected the coastal nation of Western Africa for decades, ending in 2002, and slowly, peace had returned, helping to reduce migration and violence. Essential for this progress, the defenders of the Civil Service of Sierra Leone believe that it is to nurture democracy and human rights. The Taberorma base campaign received $ 1 million in US funds. In 2023 to continue working on those objectives.
About two years later, the project, which promoted a significant participation of all citizens in their political systems, extended the scope of civic education and encouraged the candidates to run for a position, ended last week when the secretary of Frame Rubio state He ordered a pause In all new foreign assistance programs in the USA funded by the State Department and USAID. Almost all agency workers are license.
“It was a shock and devastating,” he said Fatorm From his office in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. He added the loss created “a gap” in funds and a “emptiness in the government” that said that Russia or China could hurry to fill.
USAID He managed more than $ 40 billion in assignments in 2023, according to the Congress Research Service, a figure that is less than 1% of the federal budget. A large part of the funds are granted to US organizations that give money to local partners or base groups, which implement projects in their respective countries.
Base groups are involved in carrying out a variety of humanitarian projects and activities, including work in Hospitals or health clinicsFight against human trafficking and execution programs advanced democracy, entrepreneurship or conservation.
The complex financing structure has Routinely criticized How not to reach the fast -based groups or directly, but independently, thousands of defenders and workers around the world depended on Usaid to carry out a huge work spectrum of civil society.
AMR ABDALLAH DALSH / Reuters
Collaborative freedomA global network of approximately 3,000 defenders against traffic, had 80% of its budget cut after receiving a stop order last week, said CEO Julia Macher, based in Berlin. The organization said it is financed by a USAID subgrantor through Winrock InternationalAn international development organization that manages 100 projects in 40 countries mainly for the United States government.
Macher said that since the freezing of federal funds, his group had been contacted by at least 50 members. In a Bulletin of Freedom Collaborative, Macher cited organizations in the Balkans that provide direct services to the survivors and in Thailand, where shelter workers do not have funds to pay essential such as food, medical care and transport. The work of Chab of Cambodia DieA survivor support program funded by USAID has been suspended, affecting nine staff members and dozen survivors, said Freedom Collaborative.
The situation is especially serious for groups in Latin America, said the newsletter, including an organization in Ecuador that had to put aside 11 staff members who work with migrants and trafficked individuals, and groups in Colombia who had to stop all their operations.
Financing for this type of complex work, often carried out at great personal risk for local staff and victims, is already very difficult to ensure. Often, the United States government would be the only donor willing to provide funds, Macher said. She emphasized that the benefits of these programs get far beyond people who receive assistance.
“Help with global stability, and that is the broader argument,” he said. “The work helps reduce organized crime. And if there is no response or see these crimes groups, they can begin to expand, and that is very afraid because then it is a domino effect. It is not just about humanitarian aspect.”
Stopping work so suddenly has “a great impact on real human life,” Macher said.
Rubio told us to diplomats On Wednesday that the United States does not plan to stop distributing foreign aid completely, saying that the agency must do a better job when explaining and defending where the money is going.
“We will continue to provide foreign help and participate in programs, but it has to be programs that we can defend. They must be programs that we can explain. They must be programs that we can justify,” Rubio said that about 200 employees of the United States embassy In Guatemala City, according to a partial transcription of its comments obtained Wednesday by CBS News.
Rubio also pointed out that although expenditure in foreign aid is not popular among the public, “for those of us in charge of doing the work of foreign policy, we understand that it is essential.”
Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.
