To the editor:
When Trump and Musk decimated the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by cutting funds and personnel, Americans who support other humanitarian nonprofits working overseas may have thought their agencies would be safe. They were wrong.
Mercy Corps, a nongovernmental organization financed by private donations and grants, also received funding from USAID. Now it has been forced to halt services that not only saved lives, but also work to end long-term reliance on aid.
Without USAID help, more than 100,000 people living in refugee camps will lose access to food, clean water, sanitation and hygiene services. While there are shortages of food everywhere, almost $500 million worth of food grown by American farmers, specifically for humanitarian use, is rotting in ports and warehouses for lack of funds to distribute it.
Another NGO, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), has reported the devastating impact of Trump eliminating foreign aid. Our government still owes tens of millions of dollars for work already completed by the IRC, despite the Supreme Court ruling that the Trump administration could not withhold payment for work already completed.
IRC CEO David Miliband said, “We now face the starkest of stark choices about which services can be protected, and are calling on the American public corporations, and philanthropists to show that America's generosity of spirit and commitment to the most vulnerable has not been lost.”
As our country pulls its presence and wealth away from the hungry and sick of the world, we Americans lose the gratitude, recognition, respect — and influence — we had. Other countries, like China, with other motivations, will be happy to claim our place.
