The Trump administration’s decision to suspend foreign aid funding will affect the Czech humanitarian organisation People in Need, according to reports yesterday from iROZHLAS.cz. About a quarter of the organisation’s budget is made up of funding from the U.S. government.
According to People in Need, the situation is unclear and still evolving. The organisation hopes that exemptions will be granted to provide humanitarian aid.
On his first day in office, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day suspension of all foreign aid pending reassessment for its effectiveness and consistency with the new administration’s foreign policy. People in Need and other organisations have received notifications from the U.S. State Department in recent days. According to the site, the email stated that the organisations should stop all work on programmes that are funded by U.S. foreign aid.
“We are actively addressing the situation, but the extent of the impact is difficult to estimate at this time,” said Tomas Urban of People in Need. “All contractors of the US government received a notification of the three-month suspension of all foreign aid programmes over the past few days. It concerns programmes implemented on the basis of valid contracts, which in most cases, insofar as humanitarian aid is concerned, have not been terminated.”
The organisation uses the money to ensure, among other things, basic nutrition and access to health care in several countries.
In addition to humanitarian aid, the U.S. government has also supported various projects to promote human rights. “Given the key role the US has long played in this area, we expect that many human rights activists and independent journalists threatened with persecution will remain without assistance, even in the situations where their lives or freedom are at stake,” Urban said.
People in Need is one of the largest domestic humanitarian and non-profit organisations. According to its website, it had a budget of about CZK 6.1 billion in 2023, and operates in more than 40 countries.
iROZHLAS.cz reports that the Women in Media Association will also lose a grant of about $4,000 from the U.S. embassy in the Czech Republic due to Trump’s cuts. It organises educational workshops and debates for female journalists, proposes measures to help women journalists balance work and family, and campaigns to confront sexual harassment in the workplace and online violence.
The Women’s Educational Institute in Brno, which follows the historical tradition of the Vesna association, will also lose money for its projects. The U.S. aid went to courses aimed at improving working conditions for women from Ukraine. Similarly, the Kalyna Community Centre in Pardubice, which helps the Ukrainian minority, lost a half-million subsidy.
