I’ve worked in the arts since I was a teenager, with a brief exception in the mid-90’s, when I took a job at a chain bookstore. There—despite earning minimum wage—I was offered something my three freelance theater jobs were not providing: healthcare. My colleagues at that store were a dynamic and smart group and among them I met my future husband and made several decades-long friendships.  One of those friends is someone I’m giving the pseudonym Georgia.

Georgia and her partner have been working for The United States Agency for International Development for around 15 years.  In their roles at USAID, they’ve been posted in a South Asian country as well as several African countries, relocating their family (three kids and an assortment of pets) every four years. While Georgia has always been prepared for the possibility of an emergency, she never realized that the most urgent threat would come from her own government.  While this is my blog, the story is Georgia’s and here’s what she has to tell you:

“I didn’t cry until the Saturday after there was communication from the new leadership at the State Department and USAID that threatened military evacuations for staff who wanted to stay behind so their kids could finish the school year in the school that was already fully paid for. I had to be vulnerable and reach out to local friends and strangers for leads on landlords so we could figure out alternative housing arrangements if we are told we don’t have our jobs anymore, nor the housing provided through our jobs as diplomats. I cried for my kids and their friends and my children having to unexpectedly move homes in our posted country at best, but also very likely moving countries mid-school year. This move wouldn’t be as a result of political unrest, a terror attack, or a natural disaster that we are trained for.  We have “go bags” ready and essentials if we are locked down for days in our safe haven. This is all because a few people have been allowed to run rampant attacking our own civil servants for their own revenge (looking at you Pete “Jan 6” Marocco, or their supposed ideology and monetary gain.  It’s hard enough worrying if you’re messing your kids up moving countries every few years as you as the adult made this choice to serve as representatives of the American people overseas.“

“In late January, I, like so many other people who work in international development and foreign relations, read and watched in horror the events unfolding in Kinshasa (DRC or Democratic Republic of Congo).  This is not unusual to people like us– oftentimes when the unrest goes from “yikes” to extreme in DRC, folks are evacuated across the Congo River to neighboring Brazzaville until things calm down. I knew that friends from our last post were stationed there with their three young children while I was following the news and official channels of information describing the very dire situation.  The foreign assistance freeze had been enacted by then and because they were USAID, I was worried that they wouldn’t make it out and that we would be reading about another Benghazi situation that took the life of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, along with security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Thankfully they and others made it out, but as media has reported they weren’t sure if they were going to be approved to evacuate and what they came home to is unconscionable.“

The Felon President and his Prime Minister Special Government Employee, Elmo Muskrat, have called USAID employees lunatics and criminals.  Is my friend Georgia a criminally minded lunatic?  Well, I’m willing to say she’s a dork, but I mean that with love.  What Georgia and her partner actually can be called are dedicated and caring specialists in their respective fields (Georgia in infectious disease and her partner in agriculture) who have lived in difficult circumstances due to their line of service.

“I want to give you a glimpse into the reality of the life of a foreign service family.  We have missed births, weddings, holidays, funerals, precious last moments with dying family members.  My father met his last grandchild when she was 3 months old and he was actively dying and didn’t leave the hospital until his death.  He was only able to meet her because I was nursing her, so the compassionate flight I got, allowed me to take her with me, while my two older children and spouse remained at post. They came a few days later with tickets we paid for our ourselves for his funeral services and their last memory is of him in his casket.  I wanted my little family to be together as I navigated watching my father die in front of my eyes, and I didn’t get that.“

But let’s say you don’t care about Georgia or anyone else that works for USAID because you believe, damn it, America First!  I hear you, why should you care if discontinuing the USAID program would certainly result in mass suffering, famine, disease and preventable death (though maybe stop yelling so much about being a Christian, yeah?).  Well, the point of USAID isn’t charity, but to contribute to peace, stability and democracy.  This soft power allows for significant influence of the US and is a barrier against malign foreign influence and it makes us all safer.  The funds allocated to USAID—less than 1% of US budget—heavily subsidize US farmers, whose crops are used for foreign aid. 

And, seriously, do you really think once our government destroys foreign aid that money is going to end up in the pockets of Americans?  I mean, unless you’re a gazillionaire (and in that case, why the hell are you reading this blog on budget travel?) that money is going toward making Elmo and his band of nihilist oligarchs ever richer.

Still not convinced you care about USAID?  Well, have you considered the spread of infectious diseases that will certainly occur without funding their prevention and containment? It might be easy for you to sanctimoniously clutch your pearls while thinking toddlers in foreign lands somehow deserve to suffer due to their nefarious lifestyles, what happens if, say, if a disease like Marburg or Ebola hitches a ride to the US and now it’s your toddler dying?  Let’s hear what Georgia, who you recall is an infectious disease specialist, has to say:

“As for diseases, USAID has invested heavily in fighting HIV/AIDS, TB, and many other infectious diseases that are so much more contagious and deadly. The global mpox outbreak that is still ongoing, USAID has provided technical and financial support to prevent it and other infectious diseases from wreaking havoc on our own communities and resulting in devastating human and financial impacts.  I don’t think we need to mention avian influenza and the cost of eggs and dairy products. It would be so much worse if USAID and their CDC colleagues weren’t doing the work to detect and respond to these diseases where they originated.  Diseases don’t care about borders, especially in a globalized economy.  And here’s some good news, thanks to decades of USAID investments and partnerships with foreign governments and technical experts, ongoing outbreaks like Marburg and Ebola in East Africa that are called horrific “viral hemorrhagic fevers” cause patients to bleed from orifices, and eventually succumb after rapid organ failure are being prevented, detected, and controlled. The current outbreak of Marburg (fatality rate as high as 88%) in northwestern Tanzania and the outbreak of Ebola (fatality rate as high as 90%) in the capitol of Uganda that hosts an international airport with direct flights to the U.S and elsewhere are both in a “42-day countdown phase” to declare the end of both outbreaks. USAID, along with the U.S. CDC, has filled the fiscal and technical gaps (but let’s be real, the local experts are the ones who deserve credit, but often times don’t have the resources).  These outbreaks are likely not going to make it out of the communities and hop on a plane to the U.S. or elsewhere because they were identified early and controlled thanks to the USAID partnerships that have been forged over decades and happen without the Agency or their dedicated U.S. government employees shouting from the rooftops.“

As I was writing this post, news broke that a judge appointed by President Felon has declined to block the dismissal of USAID employees, leaving Georgia and her family traumatized and unsure of their future.  Will they, like other USAID employees, be evacuated with little notice (and great taxpayer expense), pulling their kids out of school (whose tuition they have already paid) and dropping them off in an undetermined location in the US where they have no home or income? 

Here’s what we can do: make a lot of noise.  Contact your reps: (5calls makes it easy).  Protest and boycott: (50501 is organizing).  Stay informed: (I like Heather Cox Richardson). 

Remember, silence = consent.  Do it for Georgia. Do it for the world. Do it for yourself.