USAID shutdown ripples through grassroots groups worldwide: "A huge impact on actual human lives"

Abdul Fatorma, chief executive of the Campaign for Human Rights and Development International, had been working on expanding democracy in Sierra Leone for seven years. 

Civil war had plagued the West African coastal nation for decades, ending in 2002 — and slowly, peace had returned, helping to reduce migration and violence. Essential to that progress, Sierra Leone's civil service advocates believe, is nurturing democracy and human rights. Fatorma's grassroots campaign was granted $1 million in U.S. funding in 2023 to continue work on those goals.

Around two years later the project — which promoted meaningful participation of all citizens in their political systems, expanded the reach of civic education and encouraged female aspirants to run for office — ended last week when Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered a pause on all new U.S. foreign assistance programs funded by the State Department and USAID. Almost all of the agency's workers are being put on leave.