Thousands gathered outside the American Capitol on Wednesday to protest the dismantling of U.S. Agency for International Development — an agency that just three weeks ago was the largest bilateral donor in the world.
“The attempts to kill USAID will kill people,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior official at the agency who now heads Refugees International. “They will kill people that America has committed to save.”
Konyndyk was joined at the podium by 18 Democratic members of Congress and four senior USAID staff members. They’d been brought to the Capitol by Friends of Foreign Aid, a grassroots coalition of senior foreign service members, USAID staffers, and others.
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About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
