USAID closure could leave more than 15,000 people without help, according to Cáritas Colombia

The director of Cáritas Colombiana, P. Mauricio Alejandro Rey Sepúlveda, said that the possible closure of USAID by the White House would leave more than 15,000 people without attention through the projects in which the Catholic entity participates.

In conversation with ACI Press, Fr. Rey Sepúlveda explained that USAID funds today support more than 14 accompaniment projects to migrants, coexistence, democracy and “restoration of rights with vulnerable communities.”

Billionaire Elon Musk, newly appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the government efficiency department, said the White House that the USAID closure supports. Musk described the “criminal organization” agency.

For his part, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, reported on Monday he has assumed Usaid as an interim director. Rubio criticized the agency to finance programs that, according to him, do not always align with US national interests.

However, he said that there are things that Usaid does “that we should continue doing and that we will continue to do.”

Frozen help

Fr. Rey Sepúlveda recalled that on January 24, the Trump government froze exterior aid for 90 days to be evaluated. This was communicated to the Catholic entity by the Office of Population, refugees and migration (PRM) of the State Department.

However, now the situation worsens with the closure of Usaid, because “there is no way to cover those resources, it is impossible,” he told ACI Press.

Fr. Rey Sepúlveda indicated that the National Secretariat of Social Pastoral “is supported only and supported only by the projects.”

“There is no form of self -sustaining for projects to be giving. Everything is with international help, ”he said.

USAID was created in 1961 with two main objectives: to finance humanitarian projects in needy and conflict countries, and promote the commercial interests of the United States supporting the economic development of nations in the process of development. This is what it indicates A January 6 report of the Research Service Congress.

According to this document, in fiscal year 2023 the agency managed a budget of more than 43,000 million dollars, of which about 1.8 billion were allocated to countries in the Western hemisphere.

With USAID a project for migrants and refugees was financed

One of the initiatives in which Cáritas Colombiana participates and that was sustained through USAID is the project “Building bridges towards integration”whose funds came from the office of populations, refugees and migration (PRM).

It is a program that serves Venezuelan migrants, refugees, asylum and Colombian applicants: about 15,086 people in the ecclesiastical jurisdictions of Arauca, Nueva Pamplona, ​​Medellín, Pasto, Puerto Carreño, Cali, Popayán, Palmira and Soacha.

In them, people received legal guidance and accompaniment, psychological care, labor advice, among other free benefits.

Fr. King Sepúlveda said that “there will clearly be an important affectation” at the social level with the cutting of funds, since Cáritas gives attention that the State does not have the ability to provide.

As examples, he mentioned the work in Cali with the Alliance Solidaria Foundation and the community and love dining room. “Both with comprehensive care to the population, community organizations,” he said.

But to this, the priest added the situation of the nearly 150 people who were hired to operate the projects, who “at this time remain in uncertainty.”