Fight for All the People

Classroom I visited in rural Ethiopia, 2018

We are facing down the apocalypse. Today the administration attempted to cut all assistance (for things like Medicaid, school lunches, meals on wheels, education assistance) for vulnerable people he ostensibly has more reason to care about. If that's how the administration is willing to treat citizens (but for an emergency injunctive order because a consortium of States sued), what hope do vulnerable people in other countries have?  

There were 120 million forcibly displaced people in the world as of June 2024. Since then, those numbers have surely increased. When I was in Chad, rebels in Sudan attacked communities, raped and killed indiscriminately People fled over the border to the transit camp I visited. I met investigators interviewing survivors about war crimes. I met another NGO worker who was returning after three months in Sudan. He had been tasked with rebuilding a maternity hospital after it was destroyed in the war. 

The rise in forcibly displaced people continue in other places. Over the weekend, rebels took the City of Goma in the the Democratic Republic of Congo. People are actively fleeing the violence now, and I personally know someone I have worked with who is currently trapped there. Forcibly displaced people receive services not through their local governments, which are incapable in the moment of providing care, but from NGOs set up to help them survive, to give dignity, to help them recover, pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and figure out what's next.

In another country, I am aware of a program paid for through foreign aid that confidentially shelters survivors of gender based violence in hidden spaces to prevent the perpetrators from finding the survivors. Without that protection, those people, primarily women, risk being found by violent men and brutalized. 

Development is also paid for by foreign aid. Poor communities around the world get access to clean water, have access to primary school for the first time, learn about malaria, dengue and cholera prevention, have the opportunity to receive micro-loans and cash transfers to start small businesses to support their families and contribute to the local economy. Most of us do humanitarian and development work because we want to help people and believe in people, but we fulfill the purpose of foreign aid in doing so - when people are cared for, when economies develop, when illness decreases, stability increases. When stability increases, the world is a more peaceful and secure place, and that benefits the funding country. That's some, but not all, of the reasons nations fund foreign aid... it goes on.

Gender-based violence care, medical care for rape survivors, hospital rebuilding, malaria nets, clean water to prevent cholera and dysentery - all of this has been cut off. Yesterday, staff who were considering waivers for livesaving activities were dismissed from their posts. 

That said.

40 minutes ago, the AP News reported that the Secretary of State did allow for some lifesaving services to continue. Its not enough, not nearly enough. Malaria nets aren't considered lifesaving activities, neither are GBV shelters, even though without both people will die. But its a start.

Time to keep the pressure on.

Write your senators. Join petitions. Contact the State Department and demand full funding for current contracts for foreign aid.

Foreign aid is complicated, and it needs a careful and reasoned approach that may require we do differently to be more effective (which likely but unpopularly means we need more spending in the medium term, not less). But we cannot shutter support to vulnerable people while we figure it out. We must do better. 

Keep going. 

Government by the people, for the people. We the people must stand up. 

We must fight for all the people.