I worked for USAID. Here’s why the agency must be saved.
USAID creates economic opportunities for American companies abroad, exemplifies American values, and creates business opportunities for vulnerable populations.
Growing up in Philadelphia, I dreamed of living and working in Washington, D.C., and making a difference in U.S. policy to improve my hometown. I did just that with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and on Capitol Hill. But as fate would have it, I met my husband, a former assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, whose dreams extended beyond the courtroom. He wanted to make a difference across the globe.
When we married, his dream became our dream. He became a foreign service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2011. With our young son, our journey led us to the front lines of global crises. We lived through the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, and my husband served solo in both Afghanistan and Iraq, bringing American aid and expertise to some of the most fragile regions of the world.
These experiences, filled with personal sacrifices, have given me a profound understanding of how USAID plays a critical role in U.S. foreign policy, national security, and global economic stability.
My lived experience of USAID is not what Elon Musk and the Trump administration want you to believe, that USAID is a “criminal organization.” I, too, worked for USAID and did not see anything that supports that allegation. It’s difficult to cheat the government in an agency where 40% of its employees focus on accountability and compliance. So what did I see?
USAID creates economic opportunities for American companies abroad
In Cairo, I was a communications specialist for USAID from 2016 to 2018. We proudly touted the work of U.S. businesses that restore historical treasures, such as the Sphinx at Giza, temples in Luxor, and other antiquities across Egypt.
This work strengthens tourism in Egypt — critical to the economy and the stability of the nation — in one of the world’s most volatile regions. Americans and Egyptians benefited, and the relationship between our countries became more solid.
USAID exemplifies American values
USAID partners with faith-based organizations to implement its programs, aligning its mission with American values of service and goodwill. After the Haiti earthquake in January 2010, I worked for a U.S.-based religious nongovernmental organization in Port-au-Prince funded by USAID.
The collaboration yielded lifesaving results: We created employment opportunities, clean drinking water, and safe housing for residents in a small community outside Port-au-Prince who had been displaced by the earthquake. These efforts also encouraged residents to remain in their community, rebuild networks, and not seek migration overseas.
USAID creates business opportunities for vulnerable populations
I managed a U.S. State Department small grants program from 2010 to 2011 funded by USAID in Zimbabwe during the financial and humanitarian crisis under former President Robert Mugabe. From HIV/AIDS-infected communities to those in rural areas, the small grants helped communities start small businesses and buy needed equipment to access groundwater. Through their hard work and with assistance from the American people through USAID, I saw how community members could feed their families and send their children to school.
Food matters
I believe in the power of culinary diplomacy. In each country, we welcomed government ministers, judges, legislators, local entrepreneurs, and leading national and religious advocates for human rights, women’s rights, and the protection of the poor into our home.
Around our dining table, we held countless discussions with African, Egyptian, and Haitian public and private leaders who praised USAID’s impact in their countries as key to building the middle class and preventing the growth of destabilizing poverty, while giving a voice to the vulnerable.
Philadelphia has always valued public service and has a global impact through its powerful private sector. Not unlike the city’s tradition of supporting our neighbors, USAID is about helping others and securing a safer, more prosperous future for the United States.
As a Philadelphian and former USAID employee, I urge Philadelphians to write, visit, or call on the state’s congressional delegation to reverse course and save USAID now.
Dawn Patrice Jackson is a Philadelphia native and former USAID employee. Since 2006, she and her family have lived in Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Southern and West Africa.