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Emily B. Brown lost nearly $ 63,000 in contractual work for federal foreign aid agencies.
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Brown specializes in gender equality and social inclusion – initiatives that Trump Éradionne.
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It is one of the training effects for the reduction of Trump of federal expenses and the repression against Dei.
Emily B. Brown was a self -employed worker consultant Long enough to know that its cash flow is often a party or a famine. But what she couldn’t prepare was the Federal dismantling The agencies that have funded a large part of his work.
In February, she lost all of her contractual income for 2025 – a freezing effect of President Donald Trump Cup with American foreign aid.
Because it has its own business, Brown is not eligible for unemployment benefits. She had to seek two part-time jobs in retail and as a scuba diving teacher to pay for her basic expenses like the rent.
“I have to support myself,” said Brown, who lives in Key West, Florida. “I haven’t worked in any industry but foreign policy and help since I was 21.”
Brown is one of the thousands of America workers at home and abroad whose life was turned upside down by Trump 90 -day leave on foreign aidtermination of 83% of the American agency for international development agencyand the evision of almost all USAIDs 10,000 people.
The Doge’s Office of the White House of Elon and Elon Musk maintains that the movements first put “American interests” and reduce unnecessary expenses, while opponents of the actions of the administration stimulate the alarm that the The United States will give up global influence on China and are already provoking preventable deaths overseas.
“President Trump serves the American people, and not the government entrepreneurs who want to make money to taxpayers through Dei and other programs that do not align with the America First Agenda,” said the assistant press secretary of the White House, Anna Kelly, to Business Insider in a press release. “It implements policies that stimulate the growth of the private sector, increase small businesses and level up the rules of the game for American companies on the world stage.”
The administration and the DOGE were struck by a burst of prosecution contesting the closure of the USAID and the efforts to reduce the federal workforce. While the fate of American international development takes place in the courts, Brown’s career path is in the limbo.
Dei Dry Work
Brown, 39, has been working in international development for more than a decade and specializes in gender equality and social inclusion.
It aligned three contracts for 2025, totaling about $ 63,000, funded by the USAID and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent foreign aid agency which grants subsidies to low -income countries to promote economic growth, reduce poverty and eliminate corruption.
From the end of January, this work stopped – by putting the expected income of Brown, according to documents examined by Business Insider.
Brown shared emails showing that his contract with a program funded by USAID was terminated on February 13. It was an anti-corruption program to counter illicit money laundering in industries such as shipping ports and real estate. Brown was assigned to Albania, which is trying to enter the European Union by 2030 and Ghana. She had to go to Albania and carry out gender analyzes to identify who was most vulnerable to corruption or exploitation when she obtained the order to stop working.
Brown said that she had not been paid for the work she did in January and shared an invoice showing that she owed nearly $ 3,700 – a month of her expenses by a USAID partner.
E-mails show that the other two Brown contracts with the Millennium Challenge Corporation are pending while they are examined by the Trump administration. Brown was going to conduct research on the obstacles to whom girls, women, disabled people and others are faced with access to secondary education in Timor Leste and Gambia. Research would help MCC plan potential investments in these countries.
“My expertise concerns gender equality and social inclusion,” said Brown. “What this means in international development programming is to ensure that programs financed by the United States reach the most in needs and the most at risk. It is generally women, children and people with disabilities.”
Brown said that the Biden Administration on Equity had created many opportunities for its consulting services. But after Trump won the elections, she started to see this work decrease. Even if MCC’s investments are advancing, Brown said that it feared that its expertise is no longer necessary because the Trump administration eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives through the federal government.
“At the end of 2024, organizations began to become a little more cautious,” said Brown. “Then, after the elections, much more cautious in the way they were investing funds in consultants with gender expertise and inclusion.”
Brown said the weeks after drying his contracts were dark. In Key West, there are not many workers who depend on the federal government like her, so little understand the sorrow she feels. She is also afraid of the future because Trump and Doge are targeting civil society organizations that do not align with their program. She described it as “authoritarian”.
“It was only when I started to go out on this diving boat at least once or twice a week in the sun and in the water that I started to feel a little better emotionally and physically,” said Brown. “I always choke on my free days.”
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