‘Heartbreaking’: USAID -staff clearing down on desks after DODE -DEFINESS

Several US Agency for International Development Employees Cleared their offices at the agency’s headquarters in Washington on Thursday and said they were discouraged after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency dismissed them or placed them on leave.

“The more I talk about it, the more I will cry,” said Amanda, who worked in science and technology at USAID and would not share her last name by fear of retaliation as she waited to enter the building to get her stuff. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Many employees said they received an email late Sunday, informing them that they were placed in administrative leave and later awarded 15 minutes of windows to enter the building and gather their belongings. Worldwide, 4,080 USAID workers were placed on leave on Monday, and there was a “reduction in power” by another 1,600 workers, a spokesman for the State Department told Associated Press.

Those who picked up their belongings on Thursday were cheerful by hundreds of friends, family and supporters outside as they left the building with bankers, reusable bags and suitcases.

“It feels deeply disrespectful to workers, for people who dedicate themselves to making things better globally, making things better elsewhere so they don’t come here so the problems don’t come here,” said Melissa, who also didn’t shared her last name, about the short time they were assigned.

She previously worked with democracy programs in Ukraine and anti-corruption efforts.

“I mean, and we’re all people, not,” she added. “We have children to take care of, we have parents to take [care] of who age and we are struggling with it too. “

Caitlin Harwood, the mother of a 4-year-old girl and a 9-month-old, said she is “worried” over her next paycheck and is unsure of what’s next for her.

A country desk officer with USAID for Mozambique, she told ABC News that although she thinks the government could be made more effective, she takes out the way Musk’s team has done it.

“I think there’s a way to do it. I don’t think anyone would have been as scared as they are now if they had come through and said we want a program review,” Harwood said.

“So this is not efficiency and it actually costs the American people billions in dollars in spilled food, wasted medicine,” Harwood added.

Ben Thompson worked in communication before being laid off by USAID and said he had been under a “communication freezing” since the early days of Trump administration.

“Powerful, evil men are targeted at a lot of good people who have dedicated their lives to something bigger than themselves, which is something someone likes elon [Musk] Can’t relate to, “Thompson told journalists.” This is clearly about government waste, fraud and abuse. He doesn’t go through with a fine-toothed Kam-Han River our institutions for fun. “

Samantha Power, USAID -administrator under former President Joe Biden, entered the Ronald Reagan building, which houses the agency’s headquarters and spoke with workers on Thursday morning.

“What is being done is one of the greatest tabs in American foreign policy history. It’s one that generations of Americans want to look back on in horror,” Power told ABC News. “But the way it is done, cruelty, wild, the mercilessness, is an indignation, and no matter what you think of foreign assistance – to treat US public employees who will do nothing but serve their country, serve the American people, to treat them in the way they are treated, to cool and prescribe us all.”

Power said she hoped that USAID workers “remember the lives you have touched.”

Some supporters gathered outside had traveled hours to be in Washington to cheer on workers when they left the building.

Diana Putman told ABC News she was running 3 1/2 hours to get to Washington from Pennsylvania that morning “because I had to be here to support my colleagues.”

Putman retired from USAID in 2022 after spending his entire decades long career with the agency. She followed in the footsteps of her father, who had started working with USAID in March 1962 – just five months after it was founded.

“USAID is literally the prominent development agency in the world, and our soft power has meant it, so much around the world for the last 60 plus years,” Putman said. “The positive face of the American people will no longer be seen all over the world.”

When supporters arrived, Black Tape had been placed above the name USAD on the signs outside the Ronald Reagan building. Kate Parsons, a worker who was laid off last week from the USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, tore the ribbon off. She said she had come out to support her colleagues.

“I don’t know who has put that bond up, but I know USAID is still here. We’re still here,” Parsons told ABC News.

“Only Congress can close USAID – it’s a government agency. The current leadership is trying to run it. They try to do it so quickly and so toss that people don’t notice or people can’t stop it, but they haven’t fired us all yet,” Parsons added. “This match is not done yet.”

USAID workers said they want the public to be proud of the work they did.

“We love the American people. We are here to serve. That’s what bureaucrats are,” said Harwood, mother of two young children when asked about her message to the public. “We’re not -Partisan. We had a mission. We were so proud to serve it. And we hope we made you proud.”