“People will die”: Vulnerable groups in Southeast Asia at mercy of Trump’s USAID freeze

🚨 “It’s not a funding crisis. It’s a question of life and death.”— Emilie Palamy Pradichit, Founder & Executive Director, Manushya Foundation

The reckless decision by the Trump administration to freeze USAID funding has left grassroots organisations like Manushya Foundation scrambling for survival—while the lives of Southeast Asia’s most vulnerable hang in the balance.

In a powerful feature by Channel News Asia (CNA), our Founder & Executive Director, Emilie Palamy Pradichit, spoke to CNA Senior Correspondent Jack Board and exposes the devastating impact of the funding freeze on our mission to protect political activists and human rights defenders:

💔 “The activists that we were hiding, tomorrow, they can be killed because they’re no longer in our safe houses.”— Emilie Palamy Pradichit

🏠 Manushya Foundation has lost its US$560,000 in 2025 funding—shutting down vital protection work, including 9 safehouses that served as a lifeline for activists fleeing repression.

⚠️ With these safehouses gone, activists—many of whom are women, Indigenous peoples, or environmental defenders—are being forced to fend for themselves. Some are in immediate danger of arrest, deportation or assassination by authoritarian regimes.

Amid this crisis, Emilie shares a sobering but forward-looking reflection:

🌱 “We have to accept the fact that many of us have to downsize. So, our goal is not to get bigger, but our goal is to focus on what we are doing well and prioritise that.”

💡 “We have to rethink how we get funded. And we have to be innovative.”

📢 We urgently call on the international community to step up and fill this deadly funding gap. The future of human rights and democracy in Southeast Asia depends on it.

👉 Take action NOW:

💌 Donate via our website:https://www.manushyafoundation.org/donation-page

💌 Support our Weeboon fundraiser:https://www.weeboon.com/th/campaign/defending-humanity-fighting-for-climate-justice-and-protecting-those-on-the-frontlines-465521

🔗 Read the full CNA article by Jack Board and Aqil Haziq Mahmu here:https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/usaid-cuts-thailand-malaysia-southeast-asia-impact-foreign-aid-5020421

#WeAreManushyan ♾️ Equal Human Beings 

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