With the Trump Administration gutting foreign aid spending in general and turning out the lights financially on USAID completely, Santa Barbara’s nonprofit Direct Relief finds itself feeling the pinch of increased requests for assistance from disaster-struck locations and poverty-engulfed nations.
Since January 1, Direct Relief has seen its grants for medical aid — pharmaceuticals and other materials — jump by $90 million from the year before. The requests are now coming in from 65 countries as opposed to 55 during the same time last year.
Cash grants issued by Direct Relief jumped from $4.6 million this time last year to $10 million this year. Grants for help in Sub-Saharan Africa — the region hardest hit by the Trump foreign aid cuts — jumped from $86 million last year this time to $120 million so far this year. The number of countries making requests also jumped, increasing from 19 to 27.
Direct Relief does not take government funding and is not directly affected by the cuts in federal revenues allocated for humanitarian aid and other manifestations of what traditionally was described as “soft power.”
