World Relief Grieves Abrupt Halt to Foreign Assistance, Refugee Funding, Urges Church & Community to Step Up to Fill Gaps Left by Governmental Decisions

Contact: wr@pinkston.co

(Baltimore, MD) January 25, 2025 – Late on Friday, World Relief received a notice from our longtime governmental partner, the U.S. Department of State, instructing us to “stop all work” under the grant agreement that provides initial resettlement support to newly arrived refugees for the first several months of their lives in the United States. 

Early on Saturday, we received a similar notice impacting lifesaving programs that World Relief carries out internationally in partnership with local church partners through an agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Both “stop orders” cite the legal authority of President Trump’s recent Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid.

World Relief is seeking more clarity from our governmental partners on precisely what these instructions mean — and we hope that there may be some misunderstanding and possibility of reconsideration — but we are deeply grieved by the profound harm that these abrupt mandates seem likely to have on vulnerable people who have already endured profound crises. 

“We’re heartbroken by these abrupt decisions when we consider the impacts on some of the most vulnerable individuals in the United States and around the World,” said Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief. “Among those affected are refugees who have already been lawfully resettled in recent weeks to communities throughout our country, for whom our government has committed to help fund initial housing, food, and other vital integration support to help them become economically self-sufficient. Beyond the U.S., this ‘stop order’ will harm many who rely upon U.S.-funded humanitarian assistance for people facing conflict, hunger, health crises and lack of access to water and sanitation.”

Refugee resettlement and foreign assistance are not just altruistic; these are strategic investments that bolster American safety, strength and prosperity. They build goodwill globally, especially as rival powers compete for influence, and reflect core American values, including those of the many motivated by their faith in Jesus.

“When Jesus judges the nations at the end of time, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, he will do so in part based on how they fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger and cared for the sick. We are proud of the ways that our decades-long partnership with the U.S. government has allowed World Relief and our local church partners to reach more people vulnerable to great crises in ways rooted in our faith, and we urge our government to reconsider these decisions,” added Greene. 

“Our most important partner, though, will always be the church — and we are actively inviting our church partners, donors, volunteers and other supporters to step into this gap, allowing us to serve those to whom we’ve already made commitments as well and holistically as possible,” Greene concluded.

World Relief has established a donation page at worldrelief.org/give. We will continue to provide further updates as we have more information, as we seek further clarification from the U.S. administration as well as from the U.S. Congress, which appropriated these funds. 
The organization also commented earlier this week, before we had additional information on the ways that these orders would be implemented, on President Trump’s announced suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program and on the realignment of foreign assistance funding, which we had previously assumed might impact future funding but not funding for programs actively providing services as outlined in U.S. government contracts.