USAID kept him alive – then Trump’s cut

When Kajol contracted tuberculosis in January, USAID kept him alive. Now he and his family are in danger again The Trump administration ordered most US aid expenses to be abolished.

TB can be fatal if left untreated. Highly infectious bacterial disease, which usually infects the lungs, is not prevalent in rich countries, as treatment is relatively cheap. But in Bangladesh, this is a crisis.

It is particularly in a neighborhood like Mohammadpur, a slum in the capital Dhaka where Kajol, 17, lives.

“We are poor people,” she says. He is the only breadwinner for himself, his mother and younger brother. His job in a garment factory saves them all.

So when she fell ill in January, it could have been destructive.

Instead, the Deepa helped through the Hurdar. For the last three years, she has been telling the residents of Mohammadpur about TB and is getting treatment to the people that they are in dire need, free from cost.

The initiative, which tests people and receives treatment, which they require proper nutrition, run by a local support organization, feminine matri. It was funded by the US agency for International Aid till February, when it received a letter from the US government stating that the money was finished.

It treated Kajol, only partially completed, until a sudden end.

The middle treatment of cutting the drugs is very prone to TB drug-resistant. This makes it more difficult to deal with the disease and puts patients at greater risk of serious illness and death.

The government provides free medicines, but diagnosing and collecting drugs can be prohibitive for many people.

“Now I have to go to take medicine myself,” she says. “I am struggling a lot.”

Dipa, 21, says, “The people here are quite weak.”

“Or I try to provide them some financial assistance from our organization so that they can continue their treatment.”

According to the demonstration of an US government seen by the BBC, the support by USAID in 2023 directly with the support and reporting of a quarter of a million new TB cases in Bangladesh. In the same year, TB had 296,487 new or relax cases that resulted in the resulting USAID to complete or successfully completed.

The agency was seen as an integral part of the country’s fight against tuberculosis.

A director of a USAID project in Bangladesh said, “You ask people on the road, they will say yes, it is America, they are those who are keeping it under control,” said a director of a USAID project in Bangladesh, who is not authorized to speak publicly and does not want to name.

Asif Saleh, executive director of the non-profit BRAs organization, says, “Bangladesh was the biggest program of USAID in Asia.” “In terms of its impact, especially in the healthcare sector, it has been massive.

“Especially around vaccination, reducing child mortality and maternal mortality, USAID has played a big role in this country.”

In 2024, Bangladesh received $ 500m in foreign aid. This year, this amount has increased to $ 71m. To keep that number in context, over a period of 2021–2023 to three years, USAID alone committed an average of $ 83M in Bangladesh for health initiatives, including TB.

The cut in USAID means that female friendship can no longer offer her stop TB program, but it also means that DIPA is out of work. She supports her elderly parents and her younger sister.

He said, “I am completely shattered now that I have lost my job. I am carrying the burden of the family. Being unemployed is a disastrous situation,” she told the BBC.

In a document viewed by the BBC, 113 programs that were funded directly by the USAID office in Bangladesh have stopped. The list does not include innumerable programs that are directly funded by American agencies in Washington.

“The NGO sector (in Bangladesh) employs at least 500,000 people,” says Mr. Saleh. “It is very big. It’s going to end thousands and thousands of jobs.”

This is not just the United States that is moving away with foreign aid. The UK has announced a cut in its foreign aid programs, as is Switzerland. It is likely that other countries may follow suits.

This is a real reality for Bangladesh. Last year, the country’s government was overthrown and the economy is unstable, with 10% of inflation and job crisis, especially among young people.

Interim leader Muhammad Yunus says that Bangladesh will come with a new strategy of how to survive after aid cut – but it does not say how.

When a BBC interview is pressed in how the country would cover the deficiency from USAID, Younus said: “It was a small part, not a big thing. It does not mean that Bangladesh would disappear from the map.”

Asif Saleh says that the way the cut has been done is suddenly and chaotic. The influence on a country like Bangladesh is immense.

Nowhere is it that a coastal city in Southeast Bangladesh is more pronounced than the Cax Bazaar, which is home to the world’s largest refugee camp. More than a million Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority communities who call the United Nations ethnic sanitation victims, escaped from a violent purse in their country, neighboring Myanmar.

Unable to return home and unable to work outside the refugee camp, Rohingya depends on international aid for her existence.

The United States contributed almost all assistance to Rohingya refugees.

Rana Flowers, the representative of the country’s agency UNICEF’s agency UNICEF, says, “We have run out of soap.” “We are now watering trucks in camps. It is a very important time. There is an outbreak of cholera with more than 580 cases, as well as a scabby outbreak.”

Water sanitation projects in camps were funded by USAID.

Since the order to stop the work came into effect in late January, hospitals such as International Red Cross Hospitals in the Cox Market have been reduced to provide only emergency assistance. Any expectation will be resumed, this week was crushed when the Trump administration canceled more than 80% of all programs in USAID.

Patients such as Hemida Begum, who were regular treatment for high blood pressure, are left with some options.

“I’m old and I have no one to help me,” she says. Her husband died last year, leaving her to take care of her four children, including her 12 -year -old daughter who could not walk.

“I cannot go to another hospital away from home because of my daughter.”

In a UN Food Distribution Center nearby, Rehana Begum stands near two large sacks.

Inside, she says, there are six liters of cooking oil and 13 kg of rice, as well as basics such as onions, garlic and dry chillies. These rations given to him by the World Food Program (WFP) need to finalize him and his family in a month.

I ask how will she now manage that her ration will be cut early next month.

She looked surprised. Then she started crying.

“How can we probably survive with such a low amount?” Asks to be 47 years old, who shares a room with her husband and five children. “Still, it is difficult to manage.”

The WFP says that “a significant amount of funds for its emergency response operations” was forced to make strict deductions.

Ration to be allocated to the Rohingya community will only meet their basic daily dietary needs, ignoring the apprehensions that they will be left enough to live and not too much.

“This is a complete disaster in making,” says Rana Flowers of UNICEF. “Desperate disappointed people within the camps will have to face security concerns. If it rises to that degree, we will not be able to go to the camps to help.”