When funding fails, families like Neary’s face the unthinkable: separation. This is a story showing the real cost of funding cuts for real families in Cambodia.
Neary was back in school. Sreypich, her younger sister who lives with a disability, was learning to feed herself and get dressed without help. Their mother had reduced her hours at a construction site to care for both girls at home.
For the first time in a long time, things were looking up.
This wasn’t luck—it was the result of targeted, deeply human support from Children’s Future International (CFI), a community-based organization in Battambang, Cambodia. When the family faced an impossible decision—send one daughter to an institution so the other could go to school—CFI stepped in. Emergency cash assistance gave the stepmother breathing room. Social workers offered in-home therapy, helping Sreypich grow in confidence and independence.
But then, the USAID funding cuts hit CFI hard. This community-based organization had relied on seven years of support from USAID to operate its social work program—the same program that had helped Neary’s family stay together. When the stop work order came into effect, CFI lost $50,000 of an approximately $240,000 grant that was originally scheduled to continue through June 2025.
The cuts put the family’s hard-won progress—and their future—at risk. Now, they’re considering migration to survive, a move that could unravel the girls’ education and care.
Neary’s family is working with CFI to stay rooted in their community. But with social work funding in steep decline—USAID’s cuts hitting hardest—CFI is stretched thin, making hard choices about where limited resources go. Families not facing an immediate crisis are slipping through the cracks.
We can’t let these cracks widen into chasms. Only by coming together, with sustained support and action, can we ensure these families don’t fall through.” —Victoria Vrana, GlobalGiving CEO.
Now more than ever, it’s crucial that we come together to rebuild what’s been lost, and provide the steady support of families like Neary’s need to stay strong, stay together, and continue moving forward. Support the GlobalGiving Community Aid Fund and join the effort to empower communities to shape their own future.
Support the GlobalGiving Community Aid Fund
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