“I never once imagined I would be so betrayed by my own government,” Adrian Mathura, former senior advisor in global health for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), told The New York Times. A year after his forced retirement from USAID, Mathura is still seeking the retirement pay he is owed, and he’s not the only one who’s suffered severe financial losses from the destruction of the agency.

According to The Times, prior to the shuttering of USAID, Sheryl Cowan had served as a senior vice president at a USAID-funded nonprofit organization. A few months ago, she interviewed for a local retail management job at Penzeys Spices after unsuccessfully applying to 60 jobs and running low on savings.

The New York Times also reported that less than half of former USAID employees have found full-time work. About a third are still unemployed, helping drive Washington D.C.’s unemployment rate to 6.7%, the highest in the nation. Many have cashed out retirement funds or moved in with friends or family. Some rely on food stamps to feed their families.

An op-ed from The Hill argues that these firings are not simply misfortunes, but illegal abuses of power. Thousands of civil servants were dismissed from their jobs without due process of law, and according to the Civil Service Act Reform Act of 1978, a public servant’s employment cannot be terminated without evidence of misconduct or poor job performance: and even then, only with due process.

These illegal layoffs have cost former aid workers not only their incomes, but their autonomy, health, and safety too. And the consequences didn’t stop at American borders. Some of the most devastating impacts have been felt by aid workers living in other countries.

AP interviewed Rubi Lama in Nepal, a transgender woman whose work involved conducting HIV outreach among LGBTQ+ sex workers and other marginalized communities. After USAID’s funding for her work dried up, Lama and hundreds of thousands of others found themselves jobless. Lama turned to sex work for survival.

As an openly transgender woman, Lama was left with few legal options for employment, and now she works alongside the people she once aided, waiting by a highway in central Nepal for customers. At 11 p.m. one night, she had made a total of $3 after seeing two customers. Her rent and food for the month would cost her $80.

Just to make ends meet, Lama now faces the exact same dangers she used to help others avoid.

But Lama’s story is not unique. AP interviewed multiple aid workers who have also turned to sex work to survive. Many have endured heinous sexual violence since they began their work. Some fear that the work necessary to keep them alive is what will kill them one day, whether it be from violence or contracting HIV, since USAID cuts have made it nearly impossible to access previously-funded HIV prevention medication in Nepal.

The destruction of USAID did not end with the illegal firings of American public servants who lost their careers, financial stability, and livelihoods. It extended to the entire globe, bringing catastrophic consequences for aid workers in foreign countries who are unable to find alternative employment. Reinstating foreign assistance is not only vital to saving 14 million potential lives by 2030 but also supporting the hundreds of thousands of workers worldwide who have suffered unnecessarily as a result of its illegal shutdown.

That’s why we at the Alliance for American Leadership are advocating every day for its return—urging Congress to restore American leadership on the world stage by increasing investment in foreign assistance.

While the average American thinks the U.S. government spends a quarter of its budget on foreign assistance, the real number was actually less than 1% even before the dismantling of USAID. At A4AL we believe the U.S. should dedicate 2% of our budget to lifesaving humanitarian aid and global development programs, which would bring funding back to its level under the Reagan administration and enhance the safety and national security of Americans at the same time.

If you agree, tell Congress to act, and encourage your representative to stand with aid workers across the world. Then pitch in whatever you can afford to support the work of the Alliance for American Leadership. An entire industry has been devastated, and the losses will not stop until we do something about it.

Donate to A4AL