🔗 Share this article

These individuals describe themselves as the "salvage squad". After their sudden termination when foreign assistance underwent reductions recently, a team of dedicated staff decided to establish their own rescue package.

Refusing to "remain in despair", Rob Rosenbaum, along with similarly motivated ex-colleagues, initiated endeavors to preserve some of the essential programmes that faced closure after the funding decreases.

Currently, close to 80 projects have been preserved by a connector platform managed by the leader and fellow past aid staff, which has obtained them in excess of $110 million in new funding. The team behind the resource optimization project program calculates it will help 40 million people, covering many infants and toddlers.

Following the termination of operations, financial flows stopped, a large workforce was let go, and global initiatives either stopped abruptly or were struggling toward what the leader terms "final deadlines".

Rosenbaum and some of his colleagues were contacted by a charitable entity that "wanted to determine how they could optimize the utilization of their finite budgets".

They built a menu from the ended initiatives, identifying those "delivering the most critical assistance per dollar" and where a alternative supporter could practically step in and continue the work.

They soon realised the demand was broader than that original foundation and started to contact other potential donors.

"We referred to ourselves as the lifeboat crew at the outset," says the leader. "The organization has been sinking, and there are insufficient rescue vessels for every project to get on, and so we're trying to literally save as many infants as we can, get as many on to these rescue options as feasible, via the projects that are delivering aid."

The initiative, now operating as part of a global development thinktank, has secured funding for 79 projects on its selection in more than 30 countries. A few have had initial backing returned. Nine were not able to be saved in time.

Funding has originated from a combination of non-profit entities and wealthy individuals. Most wish to remain unnamed.

"The supporters come from varied backgrounds and opinions, but the unifying theme that we've heard from them is, 'I feel horrified by what's unfolding. I sincerely wish to discover an approach to intervene,'" says Rosenbaum.

"I believe that there was an 'aha moment' for all of us as we started working on this, that this provided an opportunity to transition from the passive sadness, remaining in the distress of everything that was unfolding around us, to having something productive to really sink our teeth into."

A specific initiative that has obtained backing through Pro is operations by the the medical alliance to provide services including treatment for severe acute malnutrition, maternal health care and crucial pediatric vaccinations in the country.

It is vital to continue these initiatives, says the leader, not only because restarting operations if they stopped would be extremely costly but also because of how much reliance would be eroded in the zones of instability if the group withdrew.

"They informed us […] 'we are concerned that if we withdraw, we may be unable to return.'"

Initiatives with future-focused aims, such as improving medical infrastructure, or in other fields such as education, have remained outside Pro's work. It also does not aim to save the projects indefinitely but to "buy time for the organizations and, honestly, the wider community, to devise a longer-term solution".

After securing funding for every initiative on its first selection, the team says it will now prioritize reaching more people with "tested, efficient solutions".