Additional Context: Women for Women International is an international NGO supporting women in conflict-affected countries. Its USAID-funded "Putting Survivors at the Center" project was terminated in February 2025. The project worked in the DRC, Iraq, and South Sudan — contexts selected for the severity of conflict, high prevalence of gender-based violence, and limited availability of survivor services. It aimed to strengthen referrals from health centers, local organizations, and institutions that do not specialize in GBV care, addressing both service gaps and the stigma that deters survivors from approaching dedicated GBV clinics. The organization reported that suspension in the project's third year forfeits the opportunity to establish and socialize those referral processes.

According to the country director, funding cuts hit all response sectors in North and South Kivu, DRC. Potable water access is threatened, with cholera cases at a heavily conflict-affected Goma health center projected to double from 60 to 120 per day. Accountability mechanisms lost funding, eroding community trust critical to access. Mothers of children with severe acute malnutrition must choose between staying in relatively safer villages while their child worsens or risking dangerous, multi-day travel to reach still-operational treatment centers. Skilled, dedicated staff had to be let go.

Source: Women for Women International