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<\/p>\nDespite deep cuts to the United States’ foreign aid funding, Catholic aid organizations are working to continue providing humanitarian aid to communities in need throughout the Middle East.<\/p>\n
By\u00a0Laure Delacloche, CNEWA<\/p>\n
At the entrance of St. Anthony\u00a0Community Health Center, some 6 miles north of Beirut, a sticker reads, \u201cUSAID \u2013 From the American People \u2013 International Medical Corps.\u201d It is a designation that no longer applies.<\/p>\n
On 20 January, the U.S. administration issued an executive order freezing all government foreign assistance, initially for three months, through several departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).\u00a0The order was accompanied by a statement indicating the \u201cforeign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sudden freeze in U.S. government funding, vital for thousands of humanitarian projects \u2014 U.S. foreign assistance in 2024 totaled $56 billion worldwide \u2014 reverberated across the globe and stunned nonprofit agencies and their beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
The decision reached St. Anthony\u00a0Community Health Center quickly. Run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the center received a stop-work order from International Medical Corps, which had been directing U.S. government funding to the health center since 2008.<\/p>\n
Iraqis affected \u201cwill be pushed to emigrate, which is a big problem for the Christian community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a Sunday night, they sent us a message telling us that from Monday onward, they would stop covering the consultations, the blood tests, the medicines, the medical equipment and the medical imaging,\u201d said Dr. Joelle Khalife, the dispensary\u2019s medical director.<\/p>\n
Initially, International Medical Corps only paused the funding, which represented a third of the health center\u2019s annual budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo weeks later, the team explained to us, in a very courteous way, that our contract with them was terminated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The consequences for the health center, which cares for 2,000 people monthly, were immediate.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n A man receives aid through the CNEWA-funded food box program at the Socio-Medical Intercommunity Dispensary in Nabaa, Lebanon. Photo: \u00a0 (Maroun Bassil – CNEWA)\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started charging our patients for what International Medical Corps used to cover, some of them stopped coming,\u201d said Dr. Khalife. \u201cOur patients come to us because they don\u2019t have the financial means to access health care in private hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard to explain to our patients how a decision taken in the United States leads to their health care expenses not being covered anymore,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the Lord is with us. We will not close because of this funding problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good Shepherd Sister Antoinette Assaf, who manages international partnerships in Lebanon for her community, said these cuts have made an already difficult situation more challenging. Access to funding has become \u201cincreasingly hard\u201d since the COVID-19 pandemic, she explained, and donor requirements have increased across the board as funding has decreased.<\/p>\n
In mid-March, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced 83 percent of USAID contracts\u00a0were canceled\u00a0and those remaining were\u00a0integrated\u00a0into the State Department, which had absorbed USAID in February. A month later, a final list of terminated grants had not yet been made public.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Geneva Solutions, an online news site that covers the work of international aid organizations, reported on 4 April that a leaked document indicated 77 percent of USAID grants \u2014 or \u201c6,239 awards, worth $36bn in aid\u201d \u2014 were terminated.<\/p>\n
On the list, the World Health Organization, United Nations Development Program, Mercy Corps and UNICEF were slated to lose from one-third to 98 percent of their U.S. government funding. U.N. Women and U.N.-Habitat were slated to lose all U.S. government funding.<\/p>\n
The administration reconsidered a few cuts and, on 9 April, restored funding to World Food Program projects in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq,\u00a0Jordan, Ecuador and Somalia and at\u00a0least four awards to the International Organization for Migration.<\/p>\n
Christian organizations also were impacted: Caritas, the humanitarian and development organization of the Catholic Church, was slated to\u00a0lose 25 percent of its U.S. government\u00a0funding; World Vision, 16 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese budget cuts in development\u00a0aid and international cooperation are detrimental to human development, especially affecting programs supporting refugees and other vulnerable groups,\u201d said\u00a0Karim el-Mufti, professor of political\u00a0science, international affairs and international law at the Jesuit-run St. Joseph University of Beirut.<\/p>\n
This change in U.S. policy sheds light on the weight of U.S. assistance globally and throughout the Middle East, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLebanon holds the prize of dependency on foreign aid, which is the price of having a collapsed\u00a0state,\u201d said Mr. Mufti. \u201cThe Lebanese\u00a0struggle to access basic services. Programs that were supported by the United States were very useful in terms of access to health care, education and basic amenities.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2024, the country plunged from a war limited to the South and the Beqaa valley into an all-out war between Hezbollah \u2013 a powerful Lebanese political party and a Shiite militia \u2013 and Israel, lasting two months. That year, Lebanon had received nearly $390 million in U.S. assistance, 63 percent for economic development and the rest for aid to support the nation\u2019s underfunded military. The U.S. also funded 20 percent of all U.N. projects in the country.<\/p>\n
CNEWA has not received funding from the U.S. government since 2008, so its ability to maintain current funding commitments to partners remains intact.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of 100 projects we support in\u00a0Lebanon<\/a>, so far only St. Anthony Community Health Center and another medical center are directly affected by the U.S. cuts,\u201d said Michel Constantin, CNEWA\u2019s regional director for Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, since January, other humanitarian organizations have contacted his office with \u201crequests to discuss funding issues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI doubt we will be able to support them in a significant way, as our budget for 2025 is already finalized,\u201d said Mr. Constantin.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mr. Constantin said while he thinks most Church institutions may find alternative funders, \u201cthe cuts will certainly affect the whole social situation of the country in terms of the level and quality of services provided.\u201d<\/p>\n In Lebanon, U.S. government funding supported education, health care and nutrition programs, said Laith Alajlouni, a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Manama, Bahrain.<\/p>\n Programs for\u00a0Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon<\/a>, as well as internally displaced Lebanese, will be affected. The funding cuts also are expected to \u201cslow down the humanitarian recovery and the reconstruction of Lebanon,\u201d he said, which the World Bank has estimated at $11 billion.<\/p>\n Iraq and Jordan are also long-term recipients of U.S.-government assistance. In 2024, Iraq received $333 million, while the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which enjoys \u201cmost-favored-nation trade\u201d status with the United States, received $1.75 billion in U.S. assistance.<\/p>\n The impact of the funding cuts on each country is likely to differ vastly, but the case of\u00a0Jordan<\/a>\u00a0stands out, said\u00a0Mr. Alajlouni.<\/p>\n \u201cHalf of U.S. foreign assistance [to Jordan] goes to [Jordan\u2019s] national budget, and the other half is channeled toward the development sector through USAID,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n An increased national deficit and a major decrease in access to health care, education and potable water are expected as a result. According to The National, a state-run newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, 35,000 people in Jordan had lost their jobs to the funding cuts by early February, adding to the 21.4 percent unemployment rate at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cThirty-five thousand people in Jordan had lost their jobs to the funding cuts by early February, adding to the 21.4 percent unemployment rate.\u201d<\/p>\n In\u00a0Iraq<\/a>, half of U.S. government assistance was directed to the military. The stoppage \u201cwill likely impact Iraq\u2019s ability to defend itself against ISIS,\u201d said Mr. Alajlouni, and may likely \u201cpush the country toward Iran.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In Iraq\u2019s development sector, the projects impacted are tied chiefly to democratization programs and refugees. According to the latest figures available from the UNHCR in April 2023, Iraq had 280,000 refugees and 1.2 million internally displaced people.<\/p>\n Ra\u2019ed Bahou, CNEWA\u2019s regional director for Jordan and Iraq, said CNEWA\u2019s more than 100 projects across Jordan and Iraq were untouched by the funding cuts, but the impact on other organizations is evident.<\/p>\n \u201cKey organizations, such as the World Food Program, Catholic Relief Services, Jesuit Refugee Service, are affected, with reduced capacity for food aid, education and emergency response,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr. Bahou anticipates \u201ca lot more financial pressure\u201d on his office, \u201cespecially within the health care\u00a0sector,\u201d without having the financial\u00a0means \u201cto fill the gap.\u201d<\/p>\n CNEWA is among a small group of Catholic organizations, including L\u2019Oeuvre d\u2019Orient, an initiative of the Catholic Church in France, whose projects were left unscathed by the cuts.<\/p>\n Vincent Gelot, country director for L\u2019Oeuvre d\u2019Orient in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, said his agency\u2019s partners \u2014 religious congregations, dioceses and local associations \u2014 \u201care almost never helped by large international organizations and large funding bodies because they are private or because they are faith-based.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Karam Abi Yazbeck, regional coordinator for\u00a0Caritas Internationalis in the Middle East and North Africa<\/a>, said \u201c40 percent of our budget globally comes from the U.S. government.\u201d Another major donor was Catholic Relief Services, which reportedly lost 62 percent of its funding in the government cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said Caritas had \u201ca lot of\u00a0concerns, as some communities rely\u00a0heavily on our services.\u201d In April, it\u00a0was in the process of identifying new sources of funding and considering whether to reduce activities or close\u00a0its office in Jordan.<\/p>\n Caritas Iraq lost about 20 percent of its annual budget \u2014 nearly $700,000 overnight. In response, it laid off 25 employees and was shifting its activities toward \u201cprojects that are less costly in order for our office to survive,\u201d said Nabil Nissan, executive director of Caritas Iraq.<\/p>\n The funding cuts will impact the minority Christian communities in Iraq and Jordan \u2014 respectively less than 2 percent and 8 percent of the population.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis happens in a context of high unemployment and difficult socioeconomic conditions for all segments of Iraqi society,\u201d said Mr. Nissan.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are only rare opportunities of employment within state institutions, so [people affected] will be pushed to emigrate, which is a big problem for the Christian community.<\/p>\n \u201cImplementing a project strengthens the presence of the church in the community,\u201d he added. \u201cIt sends a message that Christianity is here in Iraq, and we demonstrate our values.\u201d<\/p>\n Church-run organizations in the Middle East are in the process of\u00a0adapting to the new funding context\u00a0and are looking to Europe for additional assistance.<\/p>\n However, Mr. Alajlouni in Bahrain believes, even if European partners jump in, \u201cgaps will remain\u201d because \u201cU.S. funding was significant.\u201d<\/p>\n This article was originally published in ONE<\/a>, the magazine of Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA)<\/a>. All rights reserved. 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