A U.S. aid freeze hit secret girls’ schools
USAID is Going Through a “Through the Looking Glass”: A State Department Press Release About Implementing the New Trump Administration’s Executive Order
It’s been a tumultuous weekend for USAID — the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that tracks webpages, says that its website went down on Saturday at 3 a.m.
“It needs to die,” he wrote. It was reported that the Department of Government Efficiency was denied access to confidential documents at the US Agency for International Development on Saturday and that two of the agency’s security officials were put on leave.
The information about the agency that funds aid projects around the world can be found at a new page on the State Department’s website. The Internet Archive said that the page was captured on January 27.
The original website for the agency used to have reports and information on humanitarian assistance, global health, education, and conflict prevention, but this year they have reduced it to seven items.
The first item that appears on the State web page is a press release: “Implementing the President’s Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid.”
That order was followed by the State Department effectively freezing USAID-funded projects around the world through a “stop-work” order while a review takes place to see if they align with the new Trump administration’s agenda. Emergency food aid was exempted as was aid to Israel and Egypt. Days later, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, also widened the exception to include “life-saving humanitarian assistance.” It was defined as “medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance.”
The dissolution would extend beyond “the unlawful destruction of USAID’s life-saving work,” Gawande told NPR. “USAID has become the place where the administration is demonstrating and developing its playbook for eviscerating other targeted agencies.”
“They have announced no plan and given no rationale — they’re just taking everything down,” Konyndyk said. “They’re trying to do it behind the scenes rather than openly,” he said, so they don’t have to “defend what they’re doing” in announcements to the public.
The US Agency for International Development and Afghanistan’s Epidemics Exposed to the ‘Censorship of Government, Trade, and Security’
Konyndyk said that one of the key parts of the program is keeping epidemics from entering the U.S.
A stop work order and the layoffs of hundreds of USAID employees caused the website to shut down. In his first two weeks in office, the Trump administration placed senior leadership at the US Agency for International Development on leave, laid off more than 400 contractors and also laid off hundreds more in its Global Health Bureau.
Democratic lawmakers in Congress are decrying these actions. The dissolution of USAID would be “illegal and against our national interests,” Sen. Chuck Schumer posted on Bluesky Friday evening.
The origins of the question of the legality of any attempt to change the status of the agency are tied to it. The agency was created when President John F. Kennedy ordered the creation of an independent agency to focus on development rather than politics. Congress established the agency as an independent agency in 1998.
Konyndyk said that, at this point, it cannot be undone by an executive order. “To actually disestablish the agency and dissolve it into the State Department will take an act of Congress.”
In Pakistan, a notice sent to government officials ordered work stop on multiple USAID projects. They ranged from the rebuilding of police stations damaged by flooding in summer of 2022, to merit and needs-based scholarships.
The State Department referred NPR to the original statement and waiver when asked about the scope of programs being affected in Pakistan. The goal is to root out waste and blocking woke programs, and exposing activities that run contrary to national interests, is one of the key points. These goals cannot be met, say the memos, “if programs are on ‘auto-pilot.’ “
The pain was felt immediately in Afghanistan, where the humanitarian aid is the most important part of the country’s services. There, the Taliban’s deputy minister of economy, Abdul Latif Nazari, said that around 50 national and international aid organizations had their operations suspended, partly or entirely, across Afghanistan.
In Afghan bazaars, the price of items like bread flour, cooking oil and rice have gone up. Prices were rising before President Trump was inaugurated. But traders tell NPR that the chaos and uncertainty following his suspension of foreign aid is keeping prices high.
The hardship has been created by the fact that Aqlima is barely getting by. She asked that NPR not use her last name, worried the Taliban could identify her. A gallon of cooking oil has increased by $5 and she said that she couldn’t afford it in the past due to her small tailoring jobs. “If we use oil for one meal, we skip it for two,” she said. She purchased a new wood heater a few months ago — now she can’t afford firewood. She sighed, and said that they could only afford to breathe.
An aid worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity described the chaos of the situation. The real danger for women’s education and health care in Afghanistan is because of the money that the US Agency for International Development gives.
The health care interruptions include vaccination efforts. Nematullah Ghafouri, 30, a vaccinator in the western city of Herat, said he and his colleagues were told by their project manager on January 27 that their work was suspended. The United Nations Population Fund and the Agency for Assistance and Development in Afghanistan helped fund the project. Ghafouri did not know that his specific project used money obtained through USAID.
“The manager of our department told us to stop your work and wait for further information. Ghafouri told NPR that he is under tremendous pressure. “I am the only one in my family who has a job. He said that he needed the work.
The American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) has suspended online classes in defiance of Taliban rule, a worker said. An email response to an american student asked for anonymity
One of the projects that have an uncertain future runs classes for Afghan girls in defiance of the Taliban. Girls in Afghanistan are not allowed to study beyond grade six, and so the project runs classes online, through the radio and even has a network of clandestine schools that educate over 5,000 girls across Afghanistan.
A worker familiar with the situation said that the project was on the verge of shutting down. She requested anonymity because her aid group does not want to be identified, at a time when they are trying to negotiate a softening of the aid suspension.
The American University of Afghanistan has temporarily suspended classes, according to an email sent to a student who shared it with NPR. “AUAF will start teaching again if foreign aid is restored,” the message said. AUAF is the acronym for the American University of Afghanistan. the school has continued teaching through Taliban rule and supports educating young women in defiance of Afghanistan’s rulers. The AUAF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
