Once the faces of American aid abroad, USAID workers mourn agency's demise

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Before and after: The photo at the left shows the U.S. Agency for International Development main office at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW in Washington before the administration's edict to disband the agency. At right is what the building looks like today. Photos by Bridget Erin Craig/UPI
WASHINGTON, July 30 (UPI) -- For decades, workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development were among the quiet architects of American diplomacy, bringing food, medicine and governance reform to places where conflict and poverty had taken root.
As of July 1, hundreds lost their jobs following President Donald Trump's executive order in January to consolidate foreign assistance programs. More layoffs are expected by Sept. 2.
Some 1,600 U.S.-based employees were affected by the reduction in force, with thousands more around the globe impacted. Of 6,200 programs, some 5,200 were terminated.
This story profiles three former USAID workers, all of whom requested anonymity out of concern for professional retaliation and the heightened political climate.
They devoted their careers to public service-often in complex, high-risk environments. Now, having lost jobs they felt deeply called to, they say they can't speak for attribution due to ongoing administrative proceedings.
"The toughest thing about the closure are the literally millions of people who have been denied life-saving aid," said a former senior foreign service officer who depicted the close connection between USAID and the United Nations World Food Program in which the United States was the top donor for many years.
"One of the countries that we watched very close for the World Food Program and in previous administrations was Sudan," he continued. "The acute food insecurity in Sudan today affects probably over 25 million people. A subset of those are living in famine conditions. They're going to die, and the fact that we stopped or we've reduced our food aid under this administration is tragic."
Founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, USAID has long served as the primary engine for U.S. foreign aid, responsible for development assistance, disaster relief, global health and democratic governance.
Operating in more than 100 countries, it helped the U.S. project influence without deploying troops -- a model many experts saw as essential to preventing conflict and fostering long-term alliances.
"We were accused of being criminal and radical lunatics and extreme liberals doing this work. ... it's absolutely not true," a former USAID official said. "USAID was always bipartisan, ever since it was founded in early 1960s."
In January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio paused all foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID, aligned with Trump's executive order to ensure programs were efficient and in step with the "America first" agenda.
The abrupt dismantling of USAID marked a historic retreat from U.S. soft power and upended the lives of its career civil servants, many of whom had spent decades in service to global stability.
Working in places from Afghanistan to South Africa, a former senior foreign service officer served under several presidents, beginning his career as a Peace Corps volunteer.
"I loved the development work so much that I wanted to make a career out of it," he said. "It's purposeful work. I just feel blessed."
But nothing prepared him for the shock of USAID's sudden dissolution.
"I don't think any of us expected this," he said. "I think the complete erasure of USAID is not in the United States' interest. I think it will have terrible impacts on millions of people overseas."
For him, USAID wasn't just a job to this former foreign service officer of more than 30 years. It was the quiet muscle behind American credibility.
"Diplomacy and development are complementary but completely different disciplines," he said. "The State Department is brilliant at diplomacy. But development? It's longer-term. It's relational. And I'm not confident they have the personnel or the tools to do it right."
He recalled rural communities in Colombia, saying that residents' biggest concern, although being located in conflict zones, was not the conflict -- it was roads. Through projects like helping to build roads, the United States was able to show up.
"Without decent, passable roads, as a small farmer, the odds are stacked against you," he said, explaining the importance of soft-power development.
A former USAID senior adviser to a mission in Asia described public service as her calling. Inspired as a teenager by her education, an encounter with a development official and early roles that centered on infrastructure development. She served in some of the world's most fragile environments, From Afghanistan to Uganda.
"In Afghanistan, endless rockets came into our compound, tried to kill us," she recalled. "But this hurt more. This was worse in every way possible because it was coming from within those very people I was serving."
In January as the new Trump administration took office, she and thousands of colleagues were abruptly dismissed. She had just arrived at what was supposed to be her dream overseas post.
"I didn't even get to finish my tour," she said. "I was recalled and told I was no longer needed."
The emotional toll was compounded by erasure.
"Every record of everything I've worked on is gone -- every policy paper, every report, every project," she said.
Similarly, another former USAID official shared his extensive experience before turning to working in development. Crossing from the private sector to public service, it was the agency's mission that inspired him most -- to use American development work as a tool for stability, goodwill and shared prosperity.
"It was a wonderful experience," he said. "Professionally, it was the most meaningful work I've done -- and personally, it was great for our family."
His duty stations spanned from Iraq to Uganda and Thailand. He witnessed development ripple outward-- from better seed varieties feeding a nation to electricity transforming a household.
"I was able to be in a home and actually flip the lights on -- for the first time they had access to electricity," he said. "It changed their life. It gave them added security, it helped their children do homework at night without burning kerosene and it helped them make a little extra money by letting their neighbors use their power to charge their phones."
What hurts most, he said, was not just the shutdown but rather its execution.
"If the administration had said, 'We want to move in a different direction,'" he suggested that most people would have disagreed, but if it were handled professionally, they would have understood.
Instead, he said, he and his colleagues were labeled criminals and radicals, and that was the basis for shutting the programs down.
He said he believes the negative impact on U.S. credibility, fragile alliances and the mental health of career public servants will last years.
"We built this up for 60 years to be a machine, and yes, it was bureaucratic and it was slow, but it did a lot of good work. The biggest challenge was the layer upon layer of excessive oversight," the former official said.
The Trump administration has said that USAID's core functions are to be absorbed into the State Department, including foreign assistance, humanitarian relief and development aid.
One former senior State Department official who frequently worked with USAID, and who asked to speak on background to candidly discuss internal fallout, questioned the ability of the State Department to absorb USAID's missions, given how vital the agency was in serving as the soft power arm of the United States.
By empowering civil societies and helping build democracy from the bottom up, he said he believed USAID positively influenced development, entrusted its partners and helped stabilize regions.
He said they way staffers were terminated was deeply troubling. After spending their careers as public servants, advancing U.S. interests often in difficult and dangerous conditions, employees were given little warning and treated as though they had done something wrong.
The former official said he fears USAID's closure will have long-term consequences on America's global influence and credibility. He still encourages young people passionate about international development to continue working abroad with nongovernmental organizations and civil society groups -- and to remain hopeful.
Trump had clashed with USAID during his first term, accusing it of promoting values that conflicted with his administration's agenda. But few expected the agency's total elimination during his second term.
The decision drew swift backlash from allies, humanitarian organizations and several retired diplomats, who warned it would leave a vacuum in places where U.S. presence already was fading.