USAID Cuts Cause Worldwide StarvationBy Dr. Deborah Cunningham Breede
I don’t want any human being to suffer from malnutrition and/or starvation, especially children. I would think that goes without saying, but I have learned that I am wrong. Apparently, many people don’t care if people are malnourished or starved.
I’ve watched it all my life, but with the global economic challenges, wars both recognized and not, and now with the Trump administration’s recent cuts in USAID programs, “more and more children will die” (CNN, July 22, 2025, reported at 2:48 pm).
In Afghanistan, the challenge is particularly acute, as it is in many parts of the world, because fundamentalist religious groups such as the Taliban forbid women to Travel alone, “even if they have urgent needs,” according to the CNN reporting by Isabel Yeung. One of her interviewees (who of course requested anonymity, fearing retribution), called it “Gender Apartheid” and characterized her personal situation as “no options…I want to study.” Sadly, the Madrassa school she is required to attend only allows “strict interpretive studies of the Koran” if, of course, she can get there. She is 14 years old.
The situation is similar in many parts of the world ranging from areas in India, Africa, Asia, and South America where women are often prohibited from seeking educations, food and water sources, and agricultural tools and technologies. In some of these areas it isn’t just because of stringent laws that govern women’s lives and livelihoods; it is also because they are often targets of sexual violence when traveling alone.
The situation is just as dire, if not more so, in Gaza. News Nation’s Shosh Bedrosian reported on July 28, 2025 that a pause in the Israeli bombings of Gaza was in effect from 10:00 am – 8:00 pm (Israeli time) to allow aid into the Gaza Strip and to refute the claims that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are engaging in a “deliberate starvation” of the Palestinians. The U.S. and Israel insist that Gazans steal the aid to re-sell it.
The families of the hostages still being held in GAZA are outraged and continue to demand answers about the status and whereabouts of their still-missing and now starving loved ones. The United Nations has confirmed that Gazans are Dying of starvation. The photographs of their starving loved ones being publicized by the families of the hostages can only be described as horrific depictions of human beings starving to death. In response to the global and international condemnations the IDF will now allow the USAID drops to resume.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy was navigating a variety of aggressive “power moves” by the Soviet Union, which included the “Cuba Missile Crisis.” Facing great global outcry, he preferred to work against the Soviet Union using what he called “soft power” like that used by the Allies for the “Berlin Air Drops” during World War Two when they conveyed boxes of food to the starving populace in Berlin.
One of his responses was the creation of USAID, The United States Agency for International Development. Intended to provide disaster relief, economic development, and foreign aid, it had average annual disbursements of $23 billion from 2001-2004 and “missions” in over 100 countries. In 1998, USAID was reorganized as an independent agency by Congress. Its assistance sectors included democratic governance, Education, environmental protection and global Health. It was the world’s largest foreign aid agency. An estimated 30.4 million deaths of children younger than five years old were likely prevented between 2001-2021 alone.
Some 83% of USAID’s projects were terminated by the Trump Administration in the first half of 2025. The Trump Administration then announced that USAID programs were being integrated into the State Department in July 2025. Now in the process of closing, pending litigation, budget requests, and the Office of Inspector General continue to recognize USAID. Interestingly, only an act of Congress can end USAID as it is a U.S. government independent agency. It is, however, defunct for all intents and purposes. At least 14 million preventable deaths may occur because of this defunding, including 4.5 million children under five years old. What abomination of this sort can be tolerated?
I remember when there was global outcry when war, famine, and natural disasters caused starvation, disease and disaster. This past Saturday night on a local PBS station there was an airing of Whitney Houston’s brilliant and beautiful “Concert for a New South Africa,” held in Johannesburg, South Africa to raise funds to assist the suffering of the South African black population at the hands of the Afrikaners and other white South Africans during the days of Apartheid. This was only one such outreach from Whitney. She was committed to justice, publicizing, performing in, and donating to dozens of global relief programs during her brief but luminous life. I’ve listed a few for you here, but these are certainly not the extent of her concern and Love for those who are and/or who have “less than:”
What an amazing contribution made by an amazing woman! Many of her benefit concerts celebrate, publicize, and raise funds for causes dear to our hearts as Americans: helping those who are suffering; promoting the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; protecting and restoring our planet; caring for the ill, infirm, and dying, no matter the cause or reason; assisting refugees; and yes, working to keep all children safe from war, ignorance, hunger, and other plagues.
In my teen years, as a young then middle-aged adult, and even now that I am old, I am committed to these same causes, as many of us are. One of my favorite album purchases when I was a teenager was the Concert for Bangladesh soundtrack, an all-star benefit in Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971. It was organized by George Harrison and his good friend, Ravi Shankar, who was Bengali.
The wildly popular concert featured some of the most beloved musicians of the day, including Badfinger, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, and Ravi Shankar, among others. By 1985, it had raised an estimated $12 million for victims of war and famine in Bangladesh, including concert ticket sales, the live album, and a film. Funds were and still are distributed by the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF (Aaron Cohn, www.npr.org July 31, 2021.) Then, later I proudly bought US AID FOR AFRICA. Bono’s song “We are the World” was specifically written for that benefit.
But here in the land of the former champions of children, the USAID official government website was terminated on January 27, 2025 (Melody Schreiber, www.npr.org, February 3, 2025). On February 3, Secretary of State Marco Rubio became Acting Administrator of USAID. At that time, it was swallowed by the State Department, possibly an illegal act since the Foreign Assistance Act may prevent such a merger.
All global USAID employees were placed on administrative leave, except for those in core leadership, specially designated, and mission critical programs. On February 6, 2025, Trump announced that the agency leaders were “radical left lunatics,” and the state department ended most ongoing projects, including those meant to eradicate smallpox and HIV preventions. Treatment for 500,000 children for HIV relief has been frozen, and this action has ended clinical trials for illnesses such as cholera, HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and cervical Cancer, which I was diagnosed with and treated in 1984. If not for my treatment, I may not be writing this today.
So how extensive of an influence can just one organization have on whether human beings live or die? Let’s see:
In February, 2025 Mandaville Apoolva reported for the New York Times that the “Foreign Aid Freeze Leaves Millions without HIV Treatment.” The day after, on February 6, 2025, Deborah Patta, Sarah Carter, and Haitham Moussa CBS News’ headline read “Sudan’s Civil War is Starving Thousands of Children.”
The US began burning US funded contraceptives in France that were meant for poor nations, reported Jennifer Rigby, Jonathon Landay and others, for Reuters, on June 6, 2025. The Global Press Journal called Zimbabwe’s loss of USAID “catastrophic” on June 11, 2025. Reporting for The Atlantic (July 14, 2025), Hana Kiros’ headline read, “The Trump Administration is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food.” The US has wasted the “hundreds of thousands of vaccines” meant for Africa, reported Carmen Paun for Politico on July 18, 2025.
It goes on and on, and I could continue this death knoll listing. But I won’t. Quite frankly, I’ve been doing these issues pieces over the course of the past year, I’ve discussed some difficult topics, and this topic has been the hardest one of them all. Many have made me cry while I am writing, and this one certainly has, but it also makes me sick. I’ve seen a lot of things in my life, but I never thought I’d see people turn their backs on children who are hungry. Not in my country. Not by Americans. Especially not children. But’s that’s what we’ve got in the “land of the free and the home of the brave” these days. It should make everyone cry.
Lawsuits of course are ongoing. Decisions change almost as quickly as children die. On Wednesday, August 13, 2025, a federal appeals court voted 2-1 to lift the order that required the Trump Administration to resume USAID payments. Two separate grant recipient organizations had sued the administration, arguing that the “Separation of Powers” clause in the United States Constitution had been breached since the grant funds had been appropriated by Congress. Sadly, the federal appeals court ruled that they cannot bring claim. I don’t understand why.
I’ll bet all the starving people all over the world who will be subject to disease, death, and other horrors wish they had that food, that water, that medicine, those contraceptives. But they don’t. I bet a lot of them care, a whole lot. Sadly, I guess a whole lot of Americans don’t.
Dr. Deborah Cunningham Breede (Deb), Distinguished Professor Emerita from Coastal Carolina University, is the author of four books, several book chapters, and dozens of published articles in academic, professional, and political newsletters, newspapers, magazines, journals, and anthologies. Deb is co-chair of the Horry County Democratic Party’s Communications Committee.
