What A Day - Some Aid Workers Turn To Sex Work Amid USAID Cuts

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

Yesterday, we heard from former USAID administrator Dr. Atul Gawande about the lives lost because of the gutting of the United States Agency for International Development. On today's show, we focus on people in Nepal and their experiences before and after the cuts to foreign assistance. In Nepal, USAID helped fund organizations whose efforts centered on fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. And some of those organizations employed transgender aid workers, who are living in a country where existing outside the gender binary is generally forbidden. But after the cuts to USAID, many of these trans women have resorted to sex work – putting themselves at risk for the same disease they worked so hard to stop. To learn more about their stories, we spoke with Kristen Gelineau, a global investigative reporter for the Associated Press who visited Nepal in the spring.And in headlines, hundreds of people have been killed in flash floods that swept through the Nepal-China border, President Donald Trump announced Lake Ontario will now be known as Lake America, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gets ready to leave the White House.Show Notes: Check out Kristen's work – tinyurl.com/ybc78uka Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

Nepal has a very conservative culture. So legal work for openly transgender people is virtually non-existent. And so what happened was when these workers lost their jobs, they spent months trying to find other sources of employment only to be rejected when they showed up in person because of their gender identity. So out of desperation, around 100 of them across Nepal have now turned to sex work to survive,

which means they're now walking the streets alongside the very people. They spent years trying to help. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what today. The show noticing a theme here. See, last month, Georgia Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins got a lot of questions about his son-in-law, a white nationalist online influencer. And today, Collins got more questions, this time about a former staffer who described himself as a, quote, twink fascist and posted photos of himself wearing Ku Klux Klan robes on Twitter. In response to the Washington Post, the staffer said he was being, quote, satirical.

So maybe Mike Collins just loves satire? On today's show, we talk to the Associated Press's Kristen Geleno about how cuts to USAID have impacted both aid workers and recipients of aid in Nepal. Before we get into what the virtual end of USAID has wrought, here's what we're following today, Thursday, August 27th. What's your reaction to the Americans missing in Nepal? Oh, it's terrible. No, and we've called Nepal. and we've offered any help that they need, you know, have a very good relationship with Nepal. And that was a brutal, that wasn't just, that was mud and water as a mixture. Nobody's ever seen anything quite like that.

We're very powerful, strong, you know, strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks. That's a terrible thing. President Donald Trump spoke to reporters today about the catastrophic flash floods that swept through a border area of China and Nepal on Wednesday. According to authorities in Nepal and China, hundreds of people were killed and more than 1,400 are missing, including scores of foreigners and pilgrims. The U.S. State Department said dozens of Americans were unaccounted for in China and Nepal. It said it was not aware of any U.S. deaths. The Department also said that it will provide $500,000 in assistance through its Global Aid Award with Catholic Relief Services. The aid will help support things like emergency shelter, relief items, and hygiene assistance.

We'll discuss how the virtual end of USAID has made life. harder for people in Nepal, even outside of natural disasters, later in the show. And finally, I guess the purpose of this more than anything else is we're going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately to Lake America. That's going to take place right now as I signed the order. President Trump took another shot at longtime U.S. foe, oh, sorry, ally and neighbor Canada today when he announced Lake Ontario will now be known as Lake America. For the record, we will not be referring to Lake Ontario as Lake America. The Oval Office announcement comes days after trade talks between the countries broke down,

leading the U.S. to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. Canada responded with its own tariffs, some also as high as 50%. And now we're beefing with the nicest country on the block. Unfortunately, Trump can't force everyone to accept his name change. His executive order only updates the lake's name for the U.S. Geographic Naming Service. Canada can keep calling Lake Ontario whatever it wants to, and so can I. And for those of you asking, what will our great president name next? If you think about it, we have a Gulf and we have a lake.

Now all we need is an ocean. So maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we'll change them both. How can someone so allegedly busy be so clearly bored? Hi, guys. Hi, Caroline. Hello, good morning, Caroline. How are you?

Happy last day. Thanks. It's very bittersweet. I'll miss you guys. I know that's probably not something anyone would expect me to say. But obviously it's been great working with all of you. Has it? Though Caroline Levitt talking to reporters about leaving her position as White House press secretary

is the happiest I've ever seen Caroline Levitt. And I don't blame her. I'd also be glowing if I no longer had to wake up every day and try to figure out how to defend the indefensible. Earlier this month, Leavitt announced she would be stepping down as press secretary to spend more time with her family. So who's going to fill her shoes? We still don't know. But here's what Leavitt said when asked if she has any advice for her successor. I think it's most important in this job to understand that President Trump is his own best spokesperson. And we joke, Stephen Chung and me that he is the true communications director and press secretary here at the White House.

And just understanding that, knowing that, and believing in the mission. You can bet that Scott Jennings is out there somewhere, adding believes in the mission to his resume. You won't believe this, but it appears that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may not have been telling the truth during his confirmation hearings last year. I know. You're shocked. Back in 2019, when the future cabinet secretary was just an anti-vaccine enthusiast, he visited Samoa, a visit that critics argue caused an uptick and anti-vaccine sentiment that led to a measles outbreak that killed more than 80 people. mostly young children. But during his confirmation hearings, he told senators that his visit had

nothing to do with vaccines. For example, he told Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ed Markey, quote, My purpose in going down there had nothing to do with vaccines. But a letter sent by RFK Jr. to the Samoan Prime Minister in January 2019 and published today by the Guardian and the Associated Press makes it clear that his entire purpose of visiting was vaccines. Specifically, examining how vaccines used to inoculate against her. measles, mumps, and rebella may have been related to the deaths of two children before his visit. He wrote, quote, health information systems are rarely designed to support rapid study of associations between diagnoses and specific vaccination events.

HHS sent a statement today that the Samoa visit that appears to have been about vaccines was not about vaccines, and added, quote, any claim or insinuation based in these letters that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress is not only false, but outright defamatory. to which I say, hmm, and that's the news. Let's continue our conversation about USAID. Yesterday, we heard from former USAID administrator, Dr. Atul Gawande, about the lives lost because of the gutting of the United States Agency for International Development. Today, we're focusing on people in Nepal and their experiences before and after the cuts to foreign assistance. In Nepal, USAID helped fund organizations whose efforts centered on fighting the spread of HIV-AV-A.

And some of those organizations employed aid workers who are trans women, living in a country where existing outside the gender binary is generally forbidden. But after the cuts to USAID, many of these women lost their jobs and have resorted to sex work, putting themselves at risk of the same disease they work so hard to stop. To learn more about their stories, I spoke with Kristen Jelineau, a global investigative reporter for the Associated Press who visited Nepal in the spring. Kristen, welcome to Wadadaday. Thanks so much for having me own. You spent two weeks in Nepal this spring reporting on the fallout from USAID cuts. First, can you tell me about Friends Hatota? What did this organization do and who needed it most?

Yeah. So Friends Hatota was part of this larger umbrella organization in Nepal known as the Blue Diamond Society. And there were around 350 aid workers that worked for these groups. And their job was to provide HIV prevention services across Nepal's marginalized communities. So the workers would go out into the community. they would identify people at high risk of HIV, such as sex workers and members of the LGBTQ community and provide them with HIV testing and counseling and care. And most of these workers were themselves gender and sexual minorities, which is relevant because 85% of the funding for this program came from

USAID. And so most of them lost their jobs. But Nepal has a very conservative culture. So legal work for openly transgender people is virtually non-existent. And so what happened was when these workers lost their jobs, they spent months trying to find other sources of employment only to be rejected when they showed up in person because of their gender identity. So out of desperation, around 100 of them across Nepal have now turned to sex work to survive, which means they're now walking the streets alongside the very people. They spent years trying to help. One of the women you spent time with was Ruby Lama. Can you tell me about her? Who was she before the cuts? How did she find this job? And what happened to her when she was laid off? Yeah. So Ruby is a really interesting person. She came from a very poor village. As a child, she would sell eggs in the local market in order to pay for her primary schooling. She then received a government scholarship for impoverished students so that she could attend secondary school. And she even went to college for a couple of years, which is really unheard of.

for people from her village. She got the job with Friends Hittoda in 2016, and her role entailed going out to the community, finding people at high risk of HIV, such as the sex workers that operate in the city of Hittoda, and providing them with HIV testing and counseling. And she loved this job. She said it was her life's purpose. She felt like she was saving lives. And so when she lost the job as a result of the U.S. funding cuts, she was devastated. And she spent months trying to find other positions. She applied for government jobs, cleaning jobs, but every time she showed up in person, they would reject her because of her gender identity. And so after, you know, months of this, she got to the point where she was literally starving. She couldn't afford to buy food. Her landlord

was threatening to throw her out on the street. And so she decided she had no other option. She would have to start working the streets. And so that's what she's been doing. Her life has been a nightmare ever since, much like every former aid worker that I interviewed, who's now in the sex industry, she's been abused. She was threatened with rape at knife point, and she lives in constant fear of contracting HIV. And each of these clients only pays her between two and three dollars. So she has to pull in around five a night just to afford the basic necessities of life. I have absolutely nothing to add to that, except deep and abiding remorse for what our country has done. We'll get back to my conversation with Christian Gellano in a moment.

In the meantime, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. We want to come after some ads. What a Day is brought to you by dose. Your liver is your most underrated organ. It's doing more than 500 functions every single day, filtering unwanted elements, supporting digestion, helping with energy, but we never think about it until something's wrong. What if we actually supported it before problems start? Dose for your liver is a clinic, backed liver health supplement. This isn't just another capsule or powder. Dose is a liquid supplement. It's taken in a daily two-ounce shot and it tastes just like fresh squeezed orange

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Now it's the perfect time to plant. Let's grow together. Use WOD to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Let's get back to my conversation with Kristen Jellanow. You also reported about the pregnant women and children impacted by these layoffs, by the cuts. What did foreign aid actually look like on the ground before USAID was destroyed? Yeah, so the U.S. provided a couple of really important programs for maternal and child health.

in Nepal. So the first was there were these U.S. funded nutritional supplements and food that were provided to pregnant women and children across rural parts of Nepal. And the second was there was this program that had equipped birthing centers and trained nurses, midwives, and these outreach workers known as female community health volunteers. And these outreach workers would go into the villages, they would identify pregnant women, and then they would regularly check on these women throughout their pregnancies. They would bring them to prenatal appointments. They would serve as a mediator between the doctors and the women to ensure that the women understood what the doctors were saying because the vast majority of women in this region are uneducated.

They live in incredible isolation. They're very poor. And they really struggle to understand and navigate the medical system on their own. So when the funding cuts canceled this program, it resulted in many of these women no longer getting regular prenatal care, which we found has led to an increase in the deaths of both pregnant women and their babies. Can you tell me about Kabida, the young mother you wrote about in your latest piece? Yeah, so Kabida was a pretty typical case for what we found across this region.

She was a 20-year-old mother. She was uneducated. She was poor. She rarely left her home. She became pregnant last year, and she started having complications with this pregnancy. So in a previous pregnancy, she received a U.S.-funded nutritional supplement that had helped to offset her very limited diet. this time around the supplement was no longer provided because of the funding cuts, and she became

severely anemic. In addition to that, the aid workers that once came to her village to regularly check on pregnant women, to bring them to prenatal appointments, had stopped coming. And so she began to experience these complications. She started to have severe swelling. She had severe abdominal pain. She was weak, crushing headaches, but she didn't understand what was happening to her body. She did not understand this was an emergency. And so she suffered at home for weeks. weeks before her aunt finally took her to a hospital, at which point it was too late. Her baby was already dead, and then she herself died the next day. And the health workers that managed her case told us she died of complications from eclampsia,

which is where your blood pressure can spike very high in pregnancy. It can be fatal if untreated, as well as complications from severe anemia. And they were all quite frustrated by this case because they said, you know, generally these are conditions that can be picked up and managed with regular prenatal care, but she wasn't receiving it. How are health care workers who are still there trying to make ends meet and bridge the gap without USAID? Because clearly there's so much still to be done, so much work to be done, so many people are suffering. And there are still people who are trying to go into the breach to help. What are they doing to try and make up for the lack of USAID?

I mean, all of these NGOs are really in the same position. They're all trying to find alternative sources of funding to relaunch these programs. But the issue is you now have a larger number of NGOs competing for a smaller pool of money. And so in this case, the program, they've been trying to relaunch it, but they have not found an alternative donor to fill that gap left behind by the U.S. Kristen, thank you so much for your work and thank you so much for joining me. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. That was my conversation with Kristen Jellano, Global Investigator Reporter for the Associated press. Before we go, Votesave America has identified 12 of the most beatable Republicans up for

re-election this year, and they're calling them the crooked dozen. Kicking out the crooked dozen is doable, but it's going to take all of us stepping up. Vote Save America is here with practical actions you can take right now to help us win. Sign up at Votesaveamerica.com to get involved. Then get some friends to join you. This message has been paid for by Votesave America. Learn more at Votesaveamerica.com. It is not authorized by any candidate or candidate. committee. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. I guess anyone really can run for office and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just about how a man-serving time in federal prison in New York has advanced to the

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