{"id":62630,"date":"2025-10-07T18:57:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T18:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs"},"modified":"2025-10-07T19:40:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:40:59","slug":"lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs","title":{"rendered":"Lifeboat Crew&#8217;S Mission to Save Babies after USAID Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>After the Trump administration closed the organisation down, a group of former staff secured new funding for almost 80 programmes, benefiting an estimated 40 million people.<\/p>\n<p>They call themselves the \u201clifeboat crew\u201d. After losing their jobs abruptly when the Trump administration slashed US overseas aid earlier this year, a group of dedicated workers decided to launch their own rescue package.<\/p>\n<p>Refusing to \u201cwallow in misery\u201d, Rob Rosenbaum, a former USAID economist, and a group of like-minded former agency staff began efforts to save some of the vital programmes that faced closure after the cuts.<\/p>\n<p>Now, almost 80 projects have been saved by a matchmaking service run by Rosenbaum and other former USAID staff, that has found them $110m (\u00a382m) of new funding. The team behind the Project Resource Optimization(Pro) initiative estimates it will benefit 40 million people, including many children under five.<\/p>\n<p>After USAID closed, spending was frozen, thousands of employees were laid off, and projects worldwide either came to a shuddering halt or were left limping towards what Rosenbaum terms \u201cdrop-dead dates\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Rosenbaum and some of his colleagues were approached by a foundation that \u201cwanted to figure out how they could make the best use of their limited resources\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>They created a menu from the list of cancelled projects, identifying those \u201cdelivering the most life-saving aid per dollar\u201d and where a new funder could feasibly step in and keep things going.<\/p>\n<p>They soon realised the demand was wider than that initial foundation and started to approach other potential donors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe called ourselves the lifeboat crew at the beginning,\u201d says Rosenbaum. \u201cThe ship has been sinking, and there aren\u2019t enough lifeboats for every project to get on, and so we\u2019re trying to literally save as many babies as we can, get as many on to these lifeboats as possible, via the projects that are delivering aid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pro, now working as part of the Center for Global Development thinktank, has secured funding for 79 projects on its list in more than 30 countries. Three have had USAID funding restored. Nine were not able to be saved in time.<\/p>\n<p>Funding has come from a mix of philanthropic foundations and wealthy individuals. Most wish to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey come from very different reasons and perspectives, but the common thread that we\u2019ve heard from them is, \u2018I feel horrified by what\u2019s going on. I really want to figure out a way to step in,\u2019\u201d says Rosenbaum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that there was an \u2018aha\u2019 moment for all of us as we started working on this, that this created an opportunity to pivot from the ice-cream on the couch, wallowing in the misery of everything that was happening around us, to having something productive to really sink our teeth into.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One project that has found funding through Pro is work by the Alliance for International Medical Action (Alima) to provide services including treatment for severe acute malnutrition, maternity services and vital childhood vaccines in Mali.<\/p>\n<p>It is vital to keep such programmes going, says Rosenbaum, not only because restarting operations if they stopped would be hugely expensive but also because of how much trust would be lost in the conflict-ravaged areas if Alima withdrew.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlima told us [&#8230;] \u2018we\u2019re very worried that if we walk away, we may never be invited back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Projects with longer-term goals, such as strengthening health systems, or in other fields such as education, have not been part of Pro\u2019s work. It also does not seek to save the projects indefinitely but to \u201cbuy time for the organisations and, frankly, the broader ecosystem, to figure out a longer-term solution\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Having found funding for all projects on its initial list, Pro says it will now focus on reaching more people with \u201cproven, cost-effective interventions\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><b>Source: The Guardian<\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. After the Trump administration closed the organisation down, a group of former staff secured new funding for almost 80 programmes, benefiting an estimated 40 million people. They call themselves the \u201clifeboat crew\u201d. After losing their jobs abruptly when the Trump administration slashed US overseas aid earlier this year, a group of dedicated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":62629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-62630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lifeboat Crew&#039;S Mission to Save Babies after USAID Jobs - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After the Trump administration closed the organisation down, a group of former staff secured new funding for almost 80 p ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lifeboat Crew&#039;S Mission to Save Babies after USAID Jobs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After the Trump administration closed the organisation down, a group of former staff secured new funding for almost 80 p ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-07T18:57:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-07T19:40:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1759853170.540437.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1221\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"788\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lifeboat Crew&#8217;S Mission to Save Babies after USAID Jobs\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-07T18:57:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-07T19:40:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs\"},\"wordCount\":646,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1759853170.540437.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lifeboat-crews-mission-to-save-babies-after-usaid-jobs\",\"name\":\"Lifeboat Crew'S Mission to Save Babies after USAID Jobs - 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