Published on World Humanitarian Day — August 19, 2025. This year’s theme, “Strengthening Global Solidarity and Empowering Local Communities,” reminds us that dignity is not a luxury. It is a right. And it is under siege.
There’s no official death toll. Not yet. Not from the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign aid and PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) since January 22, 2025. But public health experts have begun to estimate the cost…
… approximately 2,472 lives lost every day.
These are not numbers — they are stolen futures. The dismantling of USAID and cancellation of 83% of global contracts has left 79 million people without the lifelines they were promised. It’s not just foreign assistance that has ceased — it’s the extinguishing of hope on a planetary scale.
Amidst the tsunami of darkness, there are small flickers of hope. For one: PEPFAR was nearly gutted – a $4B cut was written into the White House’s rescissions package — enough to shutter HIV clinics, halt treatment programs, and erase decades of progress. But advocacy worked. The HIV community mobilized. Lawmakers reversed course. On July 18, 2025, the President signed a revised bill with some PEPFAR cuts removed and $400 million restored.
This was not a victory. It was a warning – and a challenge for us all. We need to keep lighting more candles in the dark.
The Genocide Commences
Starting on the first day of his second term, President Trump issued several executive actions that have fundamentally changed foreign assistance. These included: an executive order which called for a 90-day review of foreign aid; a subsequent “stop-work order” that froze all payments and services for work already underway; the dissolution of USAID, including the reduction of most staff and contractors; and the cancellation of most foreign assistance awards. Although a waiver to allow life-saving humanitarian assistance was issued, it has been limited to certain services only and difficult for program implementers to obtain. In addition, while there have been several legal challenges to these actions, there has been limited legal remedy to date. As a result, U.S. global health programs have been disrupted and, in some cases, ended. – KFF, 10 June 2025
Prior to the Trump administration’s sudden and chaotic cuts, programs funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and the U.S. Department of Labor had delivered foreign assistance in 177 countries.
Local Consequences of Global Aid Cuts
Health Systems Crippled
- In Mozambique, HIV prevention programs overseen by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation were defunded after false claims misattributed $50M in condom purchases to Hamas in Gaza (Palestine), ignoring the reality of AIDS work in Gaza Province, Mozambique.
- In Cameroon, thousands lost access to antiretroviral therapy after U.S.-funded programs were shut down.
- In Afghanistan, maternal care, TB treatment, and therapeutic feeding centers in provinces like Badakhshan and Kabul were suspended, forcing families to seek unaffordable private care.
- In South Africa, the world’s largest HIV epidemic now faces reduced outreach and support for orphans and rape survivors.
- In Syria, ambulance services and health clinics servicing 36,000 people in Al-Hol detention camp were among the first to be cut.
- In Yemen, cholera treatment, malnutrition support, and shelters for survivors of gender-based violence were shut down.
Support for Survivors Erased
- In Guatemala, programs aiding pregnant girls who survived rape lost funding, along with HIV services for women, girls, and LGBTI communities.
- In South Sudan, rehabilitation, psychological support, and emergency nutrition for conflict and sexual violence survivors were terminated.
- In Haiti, post-rape services and child nutrition programs were dismantled.
Food and Nutrition Lifelines Severed
- In the Democratic Republic of Congo, war-ravaged families now survive on leaves and marketplace scraps; some are forced into sexual exploitation or child marriage for food.
- In Nigeria, USAID’s closure in Dikwa ended food and medical aid for displaced families fleeing Boko Haram, including anti-malaria programs.
- In Yemen, an Australian-run program serving 765,000 people — including 26,000 malnourished children — was cancelled.
Education and Protection Undermined
- In Nepal, a girls’ education program was axed, increasing risks of child marriage and trafficking.
- In Bangladesh, services for Rohingya refugees — water, sanitation, shelter — were suspended.
- In Papua New Guinea, a peacebuilding initiative to reduce tribal violence was halted mid-launch, leaving communities without mediation support.
Environmental and Community Projects Lost
- In Tanzania, the Jane Goodall Institute lost $30M in funding for its “Hope Through Action” program, disrupting reforestation, health services, and local governance.
- Across Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Australian agencies lost over $224M AUD, forcing 20 office closures and hundreds of local staff layoffs.
According to a report by the Australian Council for International Development, over 120 Australian programs have been cut. Jessica Mackenzie, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) told SBS News:
“400 million ((AUD)) worth of programming has been cut. 20 country offices have closed, and we’ve seen a number of staff laid off. Just one agency had to let go of 200 local staff, not even their own staff, and they would have been single income families. And so you can imagine the flow on effects of this.”
These programs were not accidental or random; they were part of a worldwide infrastructure of support and empowerment and dignity and a form of genuinely pro-life activism. We honour this past not by looking back in sorrow, but by looking forward with resolve. The tools of change still exist — if we choose to wield them. This work is not just history; it’s inheritance. What we do next will define who we are and what we leave behind.
Kindness not Killing
Before the Trump cuts, U.S. foreign aid had helped fund some of the world’s most cost-effective interventions: Malaria prevention, Nutrition programs and Health systems. These weren’t handouts — they were lifelines. They helped stabilize fragile regions, reduce disease burden, and build resilience against future shocks. The world must fight for a return to these aid levels and actions to improve humanity.
Even amidst the wreckage, the legacy of USAID and PEPFAR reminds us what coordinated global action can achieve. These programs didn’t just save lives — they built futures. And while many have been dismantled, the blueprint remains. It’s not too late to rebuild.
Trump’s cuts to aid funding have compelled the United Nations — which serves as a sort of middle agent for sending humanitarian aid to other groups — to focus on helping the neediest 100 million people in the world. That’s only roughly a third of the number of people who need assistance; 300 million people at the beginning of the year were considered in urgent need of humanitarian help. How can we return to better times for the others? The infrastructure may be dismantled, but the memory of what worked (and who it served) remains.
Compassion or Collapse?
Dr. Brooke Nichols, a global health economist and infectious disease modeler, has created a real-time tracker called Impact Counter to estimate excess deaths resulting from the near-total freeze in this humanitarian aid.
Nichols estimates that the freeze and cuts to USAID and PEPFAR cause roughly 103 preventable deaths every hour — about 2,472 per day — across HIV, tuberculosis and other diseases. If funding isn’t fully restored by the end of 2025, that translates into an estimated 176,000+ additional HIV deaths and 62,000+ TB deaths This equal 238,000 deaths that would not have occurred under previous funding levels.
As of today, estimates are that 141,167 adult deaths and 293,594 child deaths as a result of the cuts. Her team used disease-specific mortality models to track the fallout from the dismantling of U.S. foreign aid, including programs for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, pneumonia, malnutrition, and diarrhoea.
Other media sites acknowledge this profound loss. Internal memos from USAID, reported by ProPublica, warned that up to 166,000 people could die from malaria, 200,000 children could be paralyzed by polio, and one million children might go untreated for severe malnutrition over the next decade if the cuts remained in place.
Nichols was asked when tangible evidence could start appearing to document the deaths:
“I think it’s different for each different disease. I think in terms of stockpiles, people usually have three months of supplies on hand. So that’s when you’d start to see it. Not from day one. But for some things like malnutrition, that could happen from as early as day one. Food supplies don’t last for three months. They last typically much less time.”
Meanwhile, HIV diagnoses are rising in Africa – and locals directly attribute this to the sudden unavailability of Pre Exposure Prophylaxis due to cuts by Trump and Musk.
Meanwhile, in Kenya alone, the World Food Programme (WFP) has reduced its food basket for more than 800,000 refugees to just 28% of a full ration – the lowest level ever recorded in Kenya. My friends in those camps (and in South Sudan) report starving kids, suffering families, threats of violence when police confront peaceful protesters – and they beg the world for help. Meanwhile, Trump’s administration permits the cuts and sociopathically destroys food aid over the heartfelt efforts of aid workers.
The catastrophe is rising. This is not like waiting for a war to start – the world is already at war. The media has largely ignored it – but this is potentially Ukraine or Yemen or Gaza on a planetary scale.
But we still have time to stop the worst of it.
World Responses
“We’re forced to cut assistance even for those facing starvation… That means people will die.”
— Carl Skau
Deputy Executive Director
World Food Program
“This is not just a funding shortfall—it is a crisis of responsibility… Lives will be lost.”
— Filippo Grandi
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
“Despite a limited waiver covering some activities, what our teams are seeing in many of the countries where we work is that people have already lost access to lifesaving care and have no idea whether or when their treatment will continue.”
— Avril Benoît
Chief executive officer of MSF USA
This human catastrophe transcends borders and barriers:
“We refuse to accept that any life is worth less than another.”
— PIH Mission Statement
“Ceasing almost all life-saving humanitarian, peacebuilding, health, and poverty-focused development assistance… is unconscionable and menacing, and inflicts harm on innocent people..”
— Joint letter from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist groups
FCNL Interfaith Letter
“The scale and suddenness of these current cuts have created a life-threatening vacuum that other governments and aid organizations are not realistically able to fill… violating the rights to life, health, and dignity for millions.”
— Amanda Klasing
Amnesty International USA
“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
— Albert Einstein.
Glimmers of Hope
Even amid widespread collapse, some lifelines quietly held. These stories don’t erase the devastation—but they remind us that humanitarian action still lives in the hands of those who refuse to give up.
Ethiopia’s First Aid Breakthrough
In May 2025, ShelterBox and PAD (Positive Action for Development) launched their first joint deployment to Ethiopia, delivering emergency response training to field staff in Shire, Tigray—a region still reeling from conflict and displacement.
Staff received basic first aid, personal security, and emergency simulation training for the first time.
“The sessions were not only informative but also very relevant to our context,” said one PAD team member, “Your team’s energy and professionalism made a lasting impression on all of us.”
This wasn’t just a workshop — it was a transfer of dignity, a moment where global solidarity met local resilience.
Kenya’s Refugee Integration Breakthrough: The Shirika Plan
In March 2025, Kenya accelerated the rollout of the Shirika Plan — transforming refugee camps into integrated municipalities.
Refugees now have access to national ID systems, healthcare, education, and work permits. The towns of Dadaab and Kakuma-Kalobeyei are being elevated to full municipalities, allowing refugees and host communities to co-develop infrastructure and services. The World Bank has pledged $215 million to support robust health services for over 2 million people in Turkana and Garissa districts.
This isn’t just policy — it’s a humanitarian reset, where displaced people are no longer warehoused but welcomed as contributors to civic life. Kenya just needs to ensure that all refugees – including its LGBT+ contingent – receive equal treatment.
These stories remind us that humanitarian action is not extinct; it’s endangered. The breakthroughs in Ethiopia and Kenya show what’s still possible when solidarity is funded, trusted, and allowed to flourish. But they are exceptions, not the rule.
For every town that rises, a hundred fall. For every training delivered, a thousand go without. The question isn’t whether hope exists — it’s whether we will choose to sustain it.
What We Choose Next
This is not just a humanitarian collapse. It is a test of our collective memory — and our moral imagination.
For those seeking proof that progress still lives — even amid collapse — Miriam English’s reflection on the International Day of Hope reminds us that humanity’s arc bends not only toward justice, but toward empathy, education, and renewal.
The dismantling of USAID and the near-erasure of PEPFAR were not inevitable. They were choices. And so too is what comes next.
We can choose to rebuild the lifelines that once held 79 million people above water. We can choose to amplify the voices of those still fighting — in refugee camps, in clinics, in classrooms, in forests. We can choose legacy over lethargy.
Because the blueprint remains. The candles still flicker. And the hands that once gave hope are still here — if we choose to extend them.
This is our moment. Not to mourn what was lost, but to demand what must be restored.
Where To From Here?
Australian aid groups have been highly critical of Donald Trump’s cuts to U.S. foreign aid, describing the impact as devastating for vulnerable communities and for Australian-run programs that relied on U.S. funding.
Jessica McKenzie from ACFID emphasized that the cuts have had ripple effects, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, where Australian agencies lost over $113 million AUD in the Pacific and $111 million AUD in Southeast Asia.
In response, the Australian government has redirected some of its own aid budget to fill the gaps, particularly in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. But aid groups like Safer World for All and ACFID argue that this isn’t enough. They’re calling on the Albanese government to increase Australia’s aid spending to at least 1% of the federal budget, up from its current historic low.
“We urge the US government to immediately resume funding of critical humanitarian and health aid, either through rescinding relevant orders freezing funding or expanding the current narrow humanitarian waiver to cover all necessary health and humanitarian programs.” – Avril Benoît, Chief Executive Officer of Doctors Without Borders {MSF)
**What You Can Do**
1. Share this post to raise awareness.
Call for your church, workplace, school, community group, local council, humanitarian groups, political party, or friendship groups to take action.
2. Contact your local representatives (or other governments) to demand restoration of global aid programs.
Possible contacts:
Parliamentarians for Global Action
Canadian Members of Parliament
Chinese embassies around the world
Here is a possible email you can adapt – stay polite:
Subject: Restore Global Aid and PEPFAR – Lives Depend on It
Dear [Title] [Last Name],
I am writing to express urgent concern over the recent cuts to foreign aid and PEPFAR programs. These actions have left millions without access to life-saving services and threaten global health infrastructure.
I urge you to:
– Demand the restoration of USAID and PEPFAR funding.
– Call other nations to implement emergency overseas aid to address the shortfall
– Advocate for emergency humanitarian waivers.
– Ensure transparency and accountability in foreign assistance decisions.Lives are at stake. Please act now.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Country]
3. Support organizations still working on the ground, such as:
Even as government aid collapses, these groups continue to provide life-saving care:
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF)
Focused on ending pediatric HIV/AIDS through prevention, treatment, and advocacy. EGPAF has been deeply affected by U.S. funding cuts in countries like Mozambique.
Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières)
Provides emergency medical care in conflict zones, refugee camps, and underserved regions. MSF remains active in areas abandoned by foreign aid.
Médecins Sans Frontières Australia (Doctors Without Borders)
Delivering medical care where it’s needed most—no borders, no barriers.
Partners In Health (PIH)
Strengthens health systems in countries like Haiti, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. Their community-based model ensures care reaches the most vulnerable.
Amref Health Africa
Africa’s largest health NGO, delivering maternal care, disease prevention, and health worker training across 35 countries.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
A multilateral partnership that funds local programs in over 100 countries. Despite political setbacks, it continues to support frontline health services.
UNAIDS
Coordinates global efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat. It supports national programs and advocates for equitable access to treatment.
Save the Children
Provides food, education, and health care to children in crisis zones. Their work in refugee camps and famine-stricken areas is critical.
Save the Children Australia
Protecting children in crisis and advocating for their rights worldwide.
International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Delivers aid in humanitarian emergencies, including health care, food, and education. Active in over 40 countries.
World Vision
Delivers food, clean water, education, and child protection in crisis zones. Their work in refugee camps and famine-stricken areas is critical.
World Vision Australia
Supporting children and communities through long-term development and emergency relief.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Provides humanitarian aid in conflict zones, supports displaced families, and ensures access to medical care under international law.
Australian Red Cross – International Aid
Responding to disasters and conflict with impartial humanitarian support.
World Food Programme (WFP)
The UN’s frontline agency against hunger. WFP supplies emergency food aid in refugee camps and disaster zones, including areas affected by funding cuts.
UNHCR – The UN Refugee Agency
Protects and supports refugees and displaced people worldwide. Their work includes shelter, legal aid, and access to health services.
UNICEF Australia
Helping children survive and thrive through health, education, and protection.
Emergency Action Alliance (EAA)
A coalition of 15 leading Australian aid agencies responding to global emergencies.
Global Aid Network (GAiN) Australia
Humanitarian arm of Power to Change Australia, focused on water, disaster relief, and development.
Oxfam Australia
Tackling poverty and injustice through community-led solutions.
CARE Australia
Empowering women and families to overcome poverty and crisis.
Caritas Australia
Working with vulnerable communities for dignity, peace, and sustainable change.
Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA
The global justice organization of the Australian union movement.
The Fred Hollows Foundation
Focused on restoring sight and strengthening health systems globally.
**Sources & Further Reading**
– KFF Reports on Global Health Cuts – July 2025
– AP News Coverage of PEPFAR Disruption
– UN Humanitarian Needs Overview – 2025
5. Get angry. Act.
These are not statistics. They are children without medicine, families without food, futures erased by indifference.
As I speak to friends across Africa, mothers tell me their babies are starving because food has been cut in refugee camps. Children lack HIV medicine to keep them healthy and give them a future. Adults weep and beg for help. The world currently ignores their pleas.
It’s time to act.
**Author’s Note**
This post is part of an ongoing effort to document the human cost of political decisions. I write not only as a humanist, but as someone committed to preserving truth and dignity and human life in the face of systemic erasure.
©2025 Geoff Allshorn. I show my respect for Elders past and present and acknowledge the Wurundjeri-Willam people, the Traditional Custodians of the Land on which this blog was prepared.
