Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. (WFHR, WIRI) – More than two dozen people gathered at McMillan Library to hear about the effects of foreign aid on international relations. Greg St. Arnold lives in Milwaukee now, but he’s spent several years in other countries where he’s seen the direct impacts of foreign aid.

Why support foreign aid?

The hour-long presentation covered St. Arnold’s journey from studying abroad in Kenya to working as a Congressional staffer for Russ Feingold. He then taught for 8 years in the United States before working with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Africa. Eventually, St. Arnold became the director of education for JRS in multiple countries. His knowledge and experience with how foreign aid is utilized has given him unique insight into why it’s important. St. Arnold said there are three reasons why we should all support foreign aid.

“Number one is that it makes us safer as Americans.”
“Another way that it makes us safer is by stabilizing unstable situations or unstable areas.”
“There’s also a case of if USAID funding, resources, influence is lost, well, there’s a lot of other countries that will step in and fill the vacuum.”

Foreign aid funding

Recently, a US humanitarian program has officially sunset. USAID has been around since the 1960s and the Jesuit Refugee Service utilized some of that funding for their aid work. USAID gives aid during conflicts and natural disasters. The thinking is, foreign aid helps prevent future conflicts that would affect us here at home.

But projects to support food security and combat infectious diseases have been gutted by the Trump Administration. With most of its staff laid off, USAID formally closed at the start of July. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in part in the press release, “We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens.”

St. Arnold says that other countries will step in to fill the gap. But he says USAID spending is smart, strategically and morally. “It was the right thing to do for the United States to be engaged in kind of helping build and stabilize these types of places and we’ve just kind of walked away from it.”

Closing

St. Arnold closed out his presentation with a few actionable items. He said if people are concerned about the US no longer providing foreign aid, it’s important to talk about it. St. Arnold encouraged those in attendance to have conversations with people about why foreign aid is good. He suggested figuring out what their concerns are. Perhaps they’re worried about national security or the US being left out of growing markets worldwide.

St. Arnold said connecting the effects of foreign aid on international relations to people’s concerns helps them make a more informed decision on their view. He also said people can choose to support good foreign aid programs that aren’t connected to the US government.

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