CARE USA, the humanitarian organization headquartered in Atlanta, says it has laid off hundreds of employees across the nation and thousands abroad in the wake of the Trump administration’s massive cuts to federal foreign aid.
Founded at the end of World War II, the nonprofit has also temporarily slashed wages for its employees, including CEO Michelle Nunn, said Ritu Sharma, CARE’s vice president of U.S. programs and policy advocacy.
About $165 million in CARE’s USAID grant funding has been cut, canceling 46 aid programs in 32 countries. Combined, those programs served nearly 18.4 million people. Some was meant to help improve education in Ghana and Somalia and expand internet access in India.
In all, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency is claiming $14.6 billion in savings from cuts to USAID grants, according to an analysis of federal records by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.
Of that amount, according to the analysis, $353 million was cut from USAID grants that had been awarded to CARE and other organizations in Georgia, including the Carter Center and the Task Force for Global Health.