Devex: Emergency Donations Mobilized to Fund Helen Keller's Disease and Nutrition Work

An article in Devex details how a remarkable collaboration between public and private partners has yielded tens of millions of dollars in emergency donations to support global health programs impacted by US government cuts.  

Project Resource Optimization (PRO) was founded earlier this year by a team of former USAID staffers, following the US government’s decision to cut funding for lifesaving global health programs.  

In response to the terminations, the PRO team quickly created an “urgent and vetted” list of cost-effective, life-saving programs that donors could immediately fund with confidence. 

The PRO list included funding opportunities to support Helen Keller Intl’s nutrition work in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Nigeria, as well as our efforts to treat and prevent neglected tropical diseases in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Sierra Leone. 

Our partnership with PRO brought added visibility and external validation, and the results have been inspiring: all of our programs featured on the PRO list have received bridge funding – allowing us to resume the delivery of lifesaving health services. 

This means our teams in Nigeria, Nepal, and Bangladesh will soon be able to restart critical services for millions of women and children, including screening and treatment for acute malnutrition, comprehensive prenatal vitamin supplementation, and targeted maternal and newborn nutrition services. In West Africa, we’ll once again distribute essential preventive medications that protect communities from neglected tropical diseases. 

“This has been the largest infusion of money to stop some of the hemorrhaging caused by these terminations,” says Helen Keller’s Chief Program Officer Shawn Baker. “It’s been an incredibly emotional journey, and we’re just incredibly grateful that in this moment of crisis, people have stepped up.” 

Thanks to our generous community, some of our most essential work will soon resume. With your ongoing support, we can continue to reach millions of children and families with vital services to support good nutrition and prevent debilitating diseases. 

Read the full story here: How ex-USAID staffers turned crisis into action and mobilized $110M 

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