Think global, act local. It’s a common, commonsense mantra for many charitable organizations. And for some locally based, globally focused entities, the mission is to do both. Organizations like Minnesota-based Alight (originally the American Refugee Committee) and the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), which for years have helped people across the street and across the world.
But unfortunately, and unnecessarily, their missions have been curtailed by Trump administration cuts in international-program funding.
One 14-year-old Ethiopian girl who had survived deep trauma and a suicide attempt asked her counselor, according to a CVT spokesperson, “Are you leaving me alone like the others? Am I going back to how I was before I met you?”
Those thoughts may have been replicated by refugees in South Sudan and Southeast Asia who were served by Alight, since programs there ceased after funding cuts.
Alight started the year with five U.S. government grants but lost two of them. Overall, Alight lost about $12 million in government funding, which was about 14% of its overall budget.
“Alight focuses on working with forcibly displaced people, those who have had to flee their homes due to conflict or climate change or natural disasters or severe social or economic exclusion,” explained Alight CEO Jocelyn Wyatt. Speaking from Nairobi, Wyatt said that the organization works with refugees and internally displaced people in about 20 countries. “You know what the world looks like,” said Wyatt. “We’re running health clinics and nutrition feeding centers in Sudan, which is perhaps the biggest humanitarian crisis today.”
