President Donald Trump’s review of American foreign assistance has led to chaos in the field of aid and development, leaving hundreds of contractors in a severe financial crunch and some who already have to fire the staff and others face millions of dollars In unpaid invoices.
Hours after arriving on January 20, Trump ordered a radical review of almost all foreign aid of the United States and the billionaire in charge of Elon Musk, who has falsely accused Usaid of being a “criminal” organization, with the agency reduction.
Since then, dozen of USAID personnel have been left as a license, hundreds of internal contractors have been dismissed, while the so -called Efficiency Department of the Musk government has destroyed the agency that is the main humanitarian arm of Washington, providing billions of millions of dollars in world aid.
The general stop work orders issued by the State Department have led to the panic aid industry, both at home and abroad, since contractors generally border the costs and then bill the United States government .
For Steve Schmida, co -founder of Resonance, based in Vermont, a USAID contractor for many years working in areas such as innovation, fishing and trade conservation, the problem has become “existential” after stop orders.
“We had millions of dollars in invoices that were paid that had been approved by our clients in the United States government […] We quickly understood that this was a serious threat to our business, ”said Schmida.
The dozen license of his staff began to say goodbye when he calculated that about 90 percent of his income were about to disappear. Once finished, all but a dozen of its almost 100 headquarters based in the United States will have been affected, he said.
“The last 10 days have been the worst 10 days of my professional life,” said Schmida. Financing for some of its projects was granted during the first Trump administration.
An official of an implementing partner of USAID, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the fear of compensation, said the company had to suspend hundreds of headquarters in the United States and that the United States government should More than $ 50 million in November and December invoices that are past due.
Both the official and Schmida said they could have to go to court for pending balances.
Trust broke
Many of the USAID staff and contractors have expressed their shock because of the speed with which the administration moved to fire people only a few days before their benefits and health insurance expired.
Rose Zulliger, who worked for the president’s malaria initiative as a technical advisor to the Senior malaria, while Usaid was one of them. Last week he finished her last week and her benefits ended a few days later, leaving her struggle to find insurance before her daughter’s programmed tonsilctomy in three weeks.
“It’s not just the personal stress of losing my job […] It is also the reality that global health as we know it, and the work we do, saving lives and also protecting Americans, has pauses and the trust and relationships that we have worked as hard [for]They are so integral for the influence of the United States in the global sphere, they have broken, ”said Zultiger.
In fiscal year 2023, the United States disbursed $ 72 billion of aid worldwide, from the health of women in conflict areas to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti -corruption work . It provided 42 pieces of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.
Financing, less than 1 percent of its total budget, is instrumental in Washington’s effort to build alliances worldwide, strengthen its diplomacy and counteract the influence of adversaries such as China and Russia in the developing world.
Esther Zeledon said she and her husband lost 95 % of her income as a result of Trump’s executive orders aimed at foreign assistance and diversity measures. Zeledon worked part -time as an institutional support contractor for USAID and also had other contracts, while her husband, Paul Rivera, was a full -time institutional support contractor for the agency.
They are not sure if they will have to move with Zeledon’s mother and father in a couple of months and have been discussing measures such as taking money from their 401 retirement plan (k) to meet payments on continuous expenses.
“It’s horrible because we had planned all our year with our finances […] There is so much uncertainty, “Zeledon said.
On Monday, dozens of USAID staff, contractors and Democratic legislators protested outside the agency’s offices in Washington after employees were told that the headquarters of the headquarters would be closed for the day.
Among the crowd was Amanda Satterwhite, whose work is waiting without pay after she received an order last week to cease her work as an independent contractor, where she identified local groups abroad to which Usaid could direct assistance instead of organizations with Headquarters in the United States in an effort to spend more efficiently.
Satterwhite said she is not sure how she and her husband will make her mortgage payments and that she has already begun to look for a new job, because “nobody is sure in which state the help industry will return.”
