Nonprofit pivots to life-saving support to refugees

Safety net programs for refugees worldwide, including here in Minnesota, are in flux. After making significant cuts to foreign aid, the Trump administration has set a historically low cap on refugee resettlement in the United States. And federal food assistance hangs in the balance during the government shutdown.

Minnesota-based Alight works with refugee communities worldwide. CEO Jocelyn Wyatt spoke with MPR News host Clay Masters.

To hear the conversation, click on the player above. The following transcript has been edited lightly for clarity.

You work all over the world. So how has the end of USAID and the federal cuts to foreign aid affected your programs?

It’s been certainly a challenging year. Alight works with forcibly displaced people and refugees in about 20 countries. And earlier in the year, we lost our funding in Myanmar and in South Sudan. Those were U.S. government grants that ended.

We have been able to retain the U.S. government support that we have both for our work in Minnesota as well as our work in Sudan, Somalia and Uganda.

So, you know, really pretty dire implications in terms of the folks that were no longer able to serve. And continued questions remain in terms of continued support for the really critical life-saving the work that we're continuing to do in Sudan, Uganda and Somalia.

I understand you started a new program in Sudan. Can you tell me about that and where the money came from?

So we were able to, over the weekend, secure a six-month emergency grant to deliver life-saving food assistance to families fleeing violence in North Darfur. The conflict has really escalated in the past couple weeks.

Alight has a team on the ground. We’ve been working in Darfur for about the last 20 years. And we are mobilizing a rapid response.

This funding actually came from supporters in the Gulf, and we are distributing now 2,000 metric tons of food to families fleeing violence. We have 20 trucks that are already on the way. They’re carrying dry goods and cooking oil.

Now, an important distinction here is you don’t do refugee resettlement, but you do assist some refugee groups in the United States. Are domestic program cuts affecting them?

They are. Due to the government shutdown, SNAP benefits were paused as of Nov. 1, which has impacted 400 refugee families here in Minnesota that Alight supports.

And so, one thing that we did recently was that we had a Halloween reverse Trick or Treat, where we invited our community and supporters to donate grocery gift cards. And we then, in turn, pass them along to those 400 families that we work closely with. We have seen incredible outpouring of generosity and support. We had over $10,000 worth of gift cards delivered here to our office in Minneapolis.

Such a great example of how communities are showing up to really close this gap and support families that are so in need at this time.

Do you see a pathway for continuing your international work, both in partnership with the U.S. government and without?

We do. We have certainly done many rounds of financial modeling over the course of this year to really say, “If we’re no longer able to get any funding from the government, can Alight still exist?” And yes, the answer is, we will be around. We are committed to that.

We have paths forward with the funding that we have from other donors like the United Nations and the private funding that we have from so many generous individuals, so many of them in Minnesota, so we know that we will be around. We will exist.

We are continuing to be a strong organization. But obviously the funding and support that we have from the state department, the U.S. government, does allow us to reach more people and have more impact and save more lives.