American-made catastrophe: Growing toll of losses and deaths from USAID demolition

Millions of people at risk in Trump’s quest to save less than 1% of U.S. budget

As President Trump and his allies continue their demolition of America’s foreign aid agency, USAID, and refuse to spend already-appropriated funds for life-saving programs abroad, the devastating toll of their actions has increasingly become clear.

The fact that USAID was established by law and that funds were appropriated by Congress seems not to matter to Trump, who has declared that he will block all foreign aid except that which is aligned with his policy goals. Opponents of the Trump regime have not yet organized effective resistance to most of his barrage of self-authorized reversals of U.S. law.

Meanwhile the life-and-death consequences of his destruction of American-sponsored programs abroad are coming to light. As he seeks to eliminate the less than 1% of the U.S. budget that’s devoted to foreign aid, these are some of the victims and potential victims:

20 million people infected with HIV, including more than 500,000 children

Funds are in jeopardy for the U.S.-funded Pepfar program, which provides anti-HIV medications for more than 20 million people worldwide, including HIV-infected LGBTQ people, HIV-infected women and more than 500,000 children with HIV.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that waivers will be granted for “life-saving humanitarian assistance.” defined as “core lifesaving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance.” But it’s unclear how organizations can actually get a waiver while USAID is being shut down and incorporated into the State Department, with many USAID staff out of their jobs or barred from communicating with anyone, and thousands of USAID staff being recalled from offices abroad.

“The steps to lock out or put officials on leave have made it more difficult for remaining staff to manage the flood of exemption requests, a bottleneck that aid workers say has prevented lifesaving aid projects from restarting across the developing world”, the Washington Post reported.

Perhaps some waivers have been granted, but there have been no reports of that actually happening.

The Trump administration instructed organizations  to stop disbursing HIV medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs had already been obtained and were sitting in local clinics, the N.Y. Times reported . The administration moved to stop Pepfar funding from moving to clinics, hospitals and other organizations in low-income countries, the newspaper reported.

Young LGBTQ+ refugees from Venezuela

A program to provide mental health support for LGBTQ+ youth fleeing Venezuela was disbanded, the Washington Times reported..

LGBTQ people worldwide

Trump’s “reckless policy decision” is already producing “devastating consequences”, says the LGBTQ rights advocacy group Outright International. “Organizations have been forced to halt vital work, scale back programs, or, in some cases, face potential closure.”

Outright is urging LGBTQ organizations to share their stories via a short, anonymous survey.

Health care access for 9 million Afghans 

Health care is at risk for 9 million Afghans who are served by 1,700 health workers at the United Nations Population Agency (UNFPA), which had been getting 11% of its budget from USAID, according to the Devex news agency. The health workers will lose their jobs without a waiver to continue funding.

“UNFPA is scrambling for waivers, but time — and money — are running out,” Devex said.

50,000 pregnant women in Gaza

In Gaza, 50,000 pregnant women will lose care coming from UNFPA, Devex said.

Health care access for millions of people in Bangladesh, Ukraine, Yemen and Sudan

WIthout a waiver, UNFPA programs serving millions of people in Bangladesh, Ukraine, Pakistan, Yemen, and Sudan will cancel health services, emergency aid, and support for victims of gender-based violence, Devex said.

Military veterans in Ukraine

The U.S. sent a stop-work order to a crisis hotline that was getting up to 1,300 calls a month from Ukrainian veterans.

Before the U.S. freeze, the Veteran Hub hotline received a call from someone on the verge of hurting themselves, said program leader Ivona Kostyna. Hotline staff texted the person through the night, she said.

After the U.S. freeze, she said: “Now what we have is a line that isn’t working and basically no answer, which is terrifying for us.”

Military aid to Ukraine is not affected.

Civilians near the front lines in Ukraine

“Mobile integrated medical services to people in remote locations closely located to the frontline are impacted. We provide mobile medical services to people in the areas where there are no clinics, doctors or nurses,” said Andriy Klepikov, executive director of the Alliance for Public Health. He said he hopes the program will receive a waiver to continue.

Impoverished people who need clean water

“Funding for emergency food has been carved out as one exception, but funding for clean water, sanitation, healthcare and more has not been and are just as vital to survival for people living through crisis. We need to see these programmes allowed to proceed”, said Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America.

One million refugees in Bangladesh

“A million people live in sprawling camps in Bangladesh, where the US provided 55% of funding for the Rohingya humanitarian response and which had already seen a drop in funding last year. An aid worker there, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were assessing ‘what are the most critical life-saving activities to prioritise’ ‘, The Guardian reported.

Pregnant women in Haiti

A health program is figuring out whether to close health clinics for pregnant mothers in Haiti, leaving them with scant alternatives for a place to give birth, Time reported.

Venezuela refugees seeking homes in South America rather than the U.S.

The USAID free has forced a pause in a program that helped migrants fleeing Venezuela stay in South American countries — rather than continuing north to the U.S. border — through work training, housing, and support of the host community, Time reported.

Children dying from mpox in West Africa, Tanzanians threatened by the Marburg virus

Dr Atul Gawande, who was assistant administrator for global health at USAid under the Biden administration, said the freeze has inflicted “serious damage to the world and the US”. The Guardian reported that, as well as hitting HIV programs, it would stop work fighting a deadly Marburg outbreak in Tanzania and an mpox variant killing children in west Africa, he said.

It will also affect programmes monitoring the spread of bird flu, and working to eradicate polio and tropical diseases such as river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, he said, as well as services providing healthcare for pregnant women and childhood vaccinations.

3 million children at risk from malaria

The One campaign, co-founded in 2004 by the U2 singer Bono, estimated that nearly 3 million children could be at higher risk of malaria if the president’s malaria initiative paused work for 90 days.

Hungry schoolchildren denied $100,000s of food

Officials of one food program told Time they had to decide whether to abide by a stop-work order or deliver lunches to schoolchildren in impoverished communities, as it has for years. It decided to obey the order, wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of perishable food.

Migrants needing medical care at a shelter in Mexico

In Mexico, a busy shelter for migrants in southern Mexico has been left without a doctor, the Washington Times reported.