🔗 Share this article

These individuals describe themselves as the "emergency rescue team". After losing their jobs when overseas aid faced cuts recently, a team of committed professionals decided to create their own support program.

Refusing to "remain in despair", Rob Rosenbaum, along with equally dedicated past team members, started endeavors to save some of the vital programmes that were threatened with termination after the reductions.

Now, almost 80 programmes have been preserved by a facilitation effort run by Rosenbaum and other former team members, which has obtained them more than $110 million in fresh financial support. The group behind the Project Resource Optimization program estimates it will benefit forty million people, including many children under five.

After the agency closure, financial flows stopped, thousands of employees were laid off, and projects worldwide either came to a shuddering halt or were left limping toward what the economist calls "final deadlines".

The former staffer and a few co-workers were approached by a philanthropic organization that "aimed to figure out how they could make the best use of their finite budgets".

They developed a menu from the cancelled projects, selecting those "providing the most life-saving aid per dollar" and where a new funder could practically intervene and maintain operations.

They soon realised the demand was more extensive than that first entity and commenced to reach out to further funding sources.

"We called ourselves the lifeboat crew at the start," says Rosenbaum. "The vessel has been collapsing, and there are insufficient lifeboats for each programme to get on, and so we're trying to actually protect as many infants as we can, secure spots for these support channels as possible, via the programmes that are delivering aid."

The initiative, now operating as part of a research organization, has garnered backing for numerous programmes on its selection in over thirty regions. A few have had initial backing returned. Nine were not able to be saved in time.

Funding has originated from a mix of non-profit entities and affluent donors. The majority wish to remain unnamed.

"They originate from very different reasons and perspectives, but the shared sentiment that we've received from them is, 'I am horrified by what's going on. I really want to find a method to step in,'" says Rosenbaum.

"I believe that there was an 'aha moment' for everyone involved as we commenced efforts on this, that this created an possibility to transition from the ice-cream on the couch, remaining in the gloom of everything that was unfolding around us, to having a constructive endeavor to really sink our teeth into."

An example programme that has secured funding through Pro is work by the the medical alliance to offer support encompassing treatment for severe acute malnutrition, maternity services and crucial pediatric vaccinations in Mali.

It is vital to keep such programmes going, says Rosenbaum, not only because resuming activities if they ended would be prohibitively pricey but also because of how much reliance would be lost in the conflict-ravaged areas if the alliance left.

"The organization informed us […] 'there is fear that if we depart, we may lose our place.'"

Projects with extended objectives, such as improving medical infrastructure, or in additional areas such as schooling, have not been part of the project's focus. It also does not aim to preserve programmes forever but to "create a window for the organizations and, truthfully, the larger network, to devise a permanent resolution".

Having found support for each programme on its first selection, the team states it will now concentrate on helping more people with "established, economical measures".