Good morning, DMV. It’s Tuesday, Sept. 15.
A few months ago, former USAID staffer Jaime Oberlander presented findings from her survey of the impacts of the January 2025 dismantling of USAID on aid workers and their families.
Jaime, who is currently based in Nairobi, was a foreign service officer for USAID and had worked on education systems in post-conflict Pakistan and Somalia; youth issues in Kenya; and humanitarian issues in Ethiopia. She had been assigned to Mozambique when the Trump administration issued a stop-work order. Her husband also worked for USAID.
(Photo courtesy of Jaime Oberlander)
“A few days later, we heard about senior USAID colleagues being put on leave. Then I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to call University of Michigan in case I need to come up with plan B,’” she told me on a recent video call from Kenya.
Two weeks later, she was put on administrative leave. She worked on her grad school application. She and her husband decided to move with their daughter — one and a half years old at the time — back to Nairobi, “where we had community, can afford childcare and healthcare,” she said.
She started studies at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and launched her survey on March 27 — exactly one year after receiving the “reduction-in-force” (RIF) letter informing her that her job was eliminated.
Over four weeks through April 26, Jaime fielded 3,771 responses from participants across 49 states and 52 countries. Fifty-five percent of respondents were last employed with USAID; 27 percent with an implementing partner; and 13 percent with international nongovermental organizations.
Here are some key findings from the survey:
The majority of former aid workers remain unemployed and underemployed.
40 percent of respondents had secured full-time employment.
31 percent had not found employment.
Of those employed full time, 45 percent reported earning “significantly less.”
20 percent of households experienced dual job loss.
The likelihood of full-time employment varies by age and race.
60 percent of respondents 26-35 years old had full-time employment.
That compares with 47 percent of those 36-45; 35 percent of those 46-55; and 18 percent of those 56-65.
Asian-American (45 percent) and White (42 percent) respondents found reemployment at higher rates than Black colleagues (28 percent).
Some people resorted to “severe” measures to cope financially.
35 percent reported delaying medical care.
22 percent sold assets, including homes.
14 percent applied for government assistance such as SNAP or Medicaid.
13 percent reported moving to reduce costs or moving in with friends or family on a temporary or long-term basis.
Impacts on health and relationships …
81 percent of respondents reported stress-related physical symptoms, including headaches, trouble breathing, panic attacks, digestive issues and chest pain.
78 percent of respondents experienced mental health distress — 20 percent of whom received a diagnosis for a mental health condition, most commonly anxiety (65 percent) and depression (62 percent).
89 percent of respondents felt what happened violated their deeply-held moral and professional values.
83 percent of respondents felt betrayed by leaders and institutions.
With respect to romantic relationships, 11 percent of respondents reported their relationship status changed in 2025 — 46 percent of whom directly attributed the change to the dismantling of USAID.
For those living overseas, “our lives are our jobs,” Jaime told me. “We lost communities, routines, housing. It was so much more than losing a job.”
She said the reaction to her findings was overwhelmingly positive.
“What’s meant the most to me is people saying that they shared my report with family members who didn’t get it. They [family members] said, ‘Why can’t you just get over your job? Get over it already.’ The report gave them some of the language about why it’s so complicated and why they’re struggling,” she said.
“It not only documented the experience … it validated their experience. People felt seen. They felt less alone.”
I gave you a lot of numbers, but these are only a fraction of Jaime’s survey findings. She gave a presentation of her survey findings at American University in June. You can watch it here or read more here. She is planning to conduct a next round of data collection for this study in March 2027.
Jaime closed her presentation with the words of one respondent, which she also sent to me by email.
“In terms of mental health impacts and how USAID folks are coping one year on, I wish everyone knew how resilient we are as individuals. We have lived through coups, disease outbreaks, and evacuations. We have worked our weekends and evenings with no additional compensation in unpredictable situations, and with foreign actors who did not have our best interests in mind. We have missed funerals, weddings, graduations, and births back home in order to do our jobs. We have developed incredible systems and approaches to decision making and scenario planning that has allowed us to care for our families in complicated contexts. We are not hurting because we are not strong or resilient people. We are hurting because of the scale of the damage done and the betrayal and cruelty it represents.”
Dear readers: I love writing and offering you my Daily Dose. It’s our community gratitude journal. It’s free. But I’d appreciate your support to make this project sustainable. Please suppor my work with a monthly or yearly donation. Do you know anyone who would enjoy this newsletter? Forward this to help me grow. For newcomers: To subscribe, click here. And to those who already support me: I appreciate you.
📰 News around the DMV
Judge bars Trump administration’s ‘loyalty’ question on federal job applications (Federal News Network)
🎨 Things to do
29 things to do in the D.C. area this week and weekend (Washingtonian)
📷 Your outing
(Cheryl Ryefield)
Cheryl Ryefield shares with us this image she took Friday and a brief note …
“Each year at sunset on September 11th, I visit the National Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. I come to remember and to honor those lost on that day,” Cheryl wrote in her submission.
“I think this is one of the most beautiful memorials in our region. It is of special importance to me because this was my place of employment and on that terrible day I was a witness to the attack. It brings me much comfort to see such beauty there now.”
🕯️
