Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
What do you do when the work you’ve devoted your career to suddenly disappears? In this episode, Pastor Matt Rittle speaks with two former staff from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the federal agency that provided humanitarian aid across the world for 64 years before it was abruptly dismantled in 2025. Debbie Kaliel and Maury Mendenhall each spent over a decade in the HIV/AIDS office at USAID — Debbie partnering with local institutions to fight the epidemic and Maury specializing in orphans and vulnerable children.
When USAID was shuttered, global programs lost funding overnight and people living with HIV lost access to medications and support. Debbie and Maury didn’t walk away. Instead, they founded Crisis in Care, a volunteer initiative that connects organizations on the ground with the resources they need to sustain their work. Please consider donating to support Crisis in Care.
A conversation about loss, purpose, and what it means to keep showing up when the structures around you fall apart.
Learn more and take action:
- Crisis in Care – an urgent fundraiser to help fill the gaps in global HIV/AIDS funding
- Aid On The Hill | Grassroots Foreign Aid Advocacy – let your representatives know that you support foreign aid
- Into the Woodchipper – a first-hand, whistle-blower account of the last days of USAID
