USAID workers have the worst

Thousands of people working at the US government's major humanitarian aid and disaster relief agencies are at the forefront of fighting hunger, a country that has been ravaged by poor wars, including toxic diseases such as HIV and Ebola. We are rebuilding our infrastructure.

On Friday evening, the majority of the majority are scheduled to be suspended or fired on pay, the court issued a limited temporary order to move the Trump administration and shut down the agency.

The order was a temporary reprieve for the direct employment of approximately 2,700 people at the U.S. International Development Agency. For the past two weeks, contractors working for them and the agency have been struggling with mass panic as the Trump administration plans to start firing staff and destroying agents.

However, the aid industry, which largely relies on USAID workforce and agency funding, remains unstable. On Saturday, USAID notifies employees affected by the order that employees already on administrative leave will be resurrected on Friday, February 14th, and that no one else will be suspended on payment during that period. I did. New York Times. However, these employees may still have to wait weeks, months or potentially longer for the verdict. The case, filed on behalf of a union representing workers, is expected to go to the Supreme Court, and it is unclear whether the work will exist again.

This week's Trump administration announcement will panic around the world that USAID will reject almost every contractor, and most foreign service personnel and other direct recruits will take indefinite administrative leave. Build their lives.

With this announcement, foreign services officials will leave the post and return to the US in just 30 days, if the US government wanted to pay for the relocation, and will usually be done to almost all of its diplomatic staff. I forced them to plan a quick exit. Coups and war.

Many employees with children had to decide whether to quickly get out of school or leave their families behind until the end of the school year. People with medical conditions, including late stages and high-risk pregnancy, are worried about their travels and healthcare situations. Some suffered about what to do with their pets, as it was impossible to procure the documents they needed to enter the US in a few weeks.

The reduction in USAID appears to be driven primarily by Elon Musk. President Trump has represented the government to make budget cuts. USAID's Daily Business

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has assumed the overall authority of USAID, has tried to curb fear and encouraged people to apply for exemptions to delay travel, saying the Trump administration is “not trying to destroy people's personal lives.” “He insisted.

However, large-scale government cuts halting orders and reports have spread across the global aid industry, with scores from non-governmental organizations and consulting companies that relied on institutional funding excluded potential staff. So the agency workers responded to its potential end.

One American who posted on the USAID mission in Africa said he and his wife, the foreign affairs officer, had both been suspended.

“Two weeks ago we had appointed two beneficially employed people, and now the whole industry has been thinning out and we're back in the US without a job,” he said. .

He, like many others, spoke on the condition of anonymity. Because those still on agency salaries are instructed not to publicly discuss ongoing changes. Employees fear that fling the order could put an end to risk benefits that they may still qualify, such as pensions and retirement benefits, but the Trump administration respects such obligations. It was unclear whether or not.

On Thursday, a subset of USAID employees began receiving notifications that they were deemed “essential.”

“This is an official notice that you will continue working, and that you will be expected until you are notified in other ways,” the email notification states. Masu.

It was not clear how many employees were deemed essential. On Thursday afternoon, a senior USAID leader was told the Trump administration was planning to reduce agency staff to about 290, according to three people notifying them directly of the phone details. By Friday morning, however, two people familiar with internal guidance said there were 611 officials at the senior agency.

Some speculate that the number of people held could rise slightly as the bureau and local leaders fought to maintain as many positions as possible to continue the agency's lifesaving work. There was.

In any case, the cut to a workforce of over 10,000 people was promised to be dramatic.

“What's going on is devastating and difficult to put into words, but it's devastating,” Maria Carrasco said. Other contractors last week. “We are people who sweat and tears in these organizations because we believe in the ultimate goal of helping people. And now it's been erased.”

The USAID's move towards the workforce began in earnest on January 28th, four days after the suspension order was issued.

Ended employment contractor Samantha Cooper, who works in maternal and child health and nutrition at aid agencies, was scheduled to start a new job at the HIV/AIDS office last Monday. Within a few days, she went from excited about the milestones of her future career until she was nervous to achieve her goals.

“I need to apply for unemployment, but it doesn't cover rent. Food stamps, it's fine, it's at least giving me groceries,” she said in a phone interview. Her medical insurance disappeared last Friday.

Cooper, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said she felt she was lucky more than most.

“I have a colleague who is experiencing IVF, but they lost all the benefits. People who have gone through cancer treatments and are with their parents in the hospice – and they were the earners.” She said. “I feel privileged to say this is just something I struggle with. I know a lot of other people have to deal with it, and it's literally going to break them.”

It was a horror for Asian foreign services officials who discovered this week that close relatives would need to be evacuated due to their life-threatening health conditions. For emergency medical trips. They were told that their only option would be to return to the US soon.

Another foreign service officer working on a mission in Africa struggled with how to break the news with her two young children.

She also worries that if she and her spouse, who work in development, realize they lost their job right away, they will have to live out of the savings they wanted to turn to their home. I was doing it.

“How do you find work because it feels like the whole sector is sinking?” she said she spoke about the terms of anonymity, like others, for fear of retaliation. “All I know is development. All I know is public health. I have dedicated my life to this. What other skills do I have?”

USAID decimation has also caused a domino effect as contractors, non-governmental organizations and consulting companies that rely on funding from agents for projects are also forced to cut. At least 10,000 American jobs in this sector have already disappeared, according to interactions representing many organizations specializing in foreign aid.

“It's the innards of this sector,” said Tom Hart, president and CEO of Interaction.

Employees of non-governmental organizations and businesses that rely on USAID funds are effectively blocked from accessing funds through the institution's accounting system, and in some cases without ensuring that the federal government will refund them. He said he was owing months' expenses.

Resonance, a development consulting firm that employs around 150 people worldwide, is an example of a small, hugely successful company. The company conducted approximately 75% of its operations with USAID prior to its contraction. Co-founder Steve Schmida said the bill dates back to November.

“We are clearly forced to pay huge amounts of money when we receive a salary or refund,” Schmida said, adding that almost 90% of US-based staff would have to be laid off. I added. He said he has been doing it for three months without paying to help free up the funds because he is floating his business.

However, when news of dramatic staff cuts became entrenched, he lost hope for the government to cover the funds his company had been promised.

“It was just a catastrophe,” he said of the USAID cut.

Edward Wong contributed to reports from Bangkok and Chris Cameron in Washington.