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USAID Cuts Hurt Free Press, Human Rights, and Children in Cambodia

By Bhavia Wagner

Upon taking office in January 2025, President Trump stopped all foreign aid. Within a couple of months, the administration decided to eliminate 83% of the United States funding for international aid programs, including 30 USAID programs in Cambodia totaling $260 million. This meant cuts to funding for health, education, child protection, independent media, civil society, human rights, and efforts to stop human trafficking.

The dramatic reduction of international aid also represents a loss of US influence abroad. By fostering goodwill through humanitarian aid, the USAID agency maintained diplomatic relationships, promoted political and economic models that supported US interests, and worked to reduce instability. China has already started to fill the void.

Independent Journalism Ended

Over the last 30 years, the Cambodian government changed from an emerging democracy to a corrupt dictatorship. People perceived as criticizing the government, including political parties, journalists, and organizers, have been subject to harassment, imprisonment, and assassination.

Up until now, the United States government has put pressure on Cambodia to respect human rights and has funded independent media, including Radio Free Asia and Voice of America. Cutting funds to these programs brought an end to Cambodia's last independent media outlets. The Cambodian government now has complete control over the news.

Elimination of independent reporting was a terrible shock to the Cambodian people. They expect their government to become even more oppressive and cruel.

Public Health Programs Defunded

Programs previously funded by USAID included fighting the tuberculosis epidemic, working toward malaria elimination, HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, women's health care, and access to clean water. Boston University estimates nearly 90,000 people around the world died in the first six months after funding for AIDS Relief was frozen by the US government. Since then, some of the US funding for HIV treatment has resumed in Cambodia. In particular, the program aimed at preventing mother-to-child transmission.

Programs that Improved Quality of Life Were Eliminated

The United States stopped funding programs supporting sustainable agriculture, care for vulnerable children, combating human trafficking, and protecting democracy, workers' rights, land rights, and natural resources. Also terminated were university scholarships directed toward students who would otherwise have no access to higher education, including rural students, young women, and people with disabilities. This news was devastating to these high-performing students who come from the poorest communities.

Demining Reinstated

One of the few programs the United States is continuing to fund is the demining program. There are still 4 to 6 million landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Cambodia, resulting from the Vietnam War which spilled into Cambodia (1970-1975), Cambodia's genocide (1975-1979), and Cambodia's Civil War (1979-1998).

During the genocide, the Khmer Rouge (Cambodian Maoist extremists) were responsible for killing 1.7 million Cambodians, through execution, starvation, or lack of medical care. The "enemy" targeted by the Khmer Rouge included people living in cities and people with an education.

Cambodia's Civil war was between Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian government. The Cambodian government was backed by Vietnam from 1979 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The United States covertly supported the Khmer Rouge during the civil war in the 1980's by channeling weapons and food through Khmer Rouge controlled refugee camps in Thailand.

The deadly aftermath of these conflicts continues today. Nearly 20,000 civilians have been killed, and 45,000 more have been maimed by mines and ordnance leftover from the wars. Cambodia has the highest per capita rate of landmine amputees in the world. In February 2026, the United States allocated $5 million in aid for demining in Cambodia.

Care for Orphaned Babies Withdrawn

One of the USAID programs that was defunded provided food and foster care to babies who were abandoned in the hospital. Babies may be abandoned at birth when their mother is homeless, is young and not married, or is too poor to feed another child.

This program hires foster families to care for these children and also pays for the babies' food and supplies. The foster parents are carefully chosen and have already proven to be nurturing parents who believe in helping children thrive.

The Foster Parent Program tries to find a permanent home for the baby. If they know the identity of the birth mother, then they try to help her improve her life and reunite her with her baby. If that is not possible, they look for someone in the mother's extended family who would be willing to raise the child. If this is not a feasible solution, then they try to find an adoptive family in Cambodia. The child's well-being is the highest priority.

Friendship with Cambodia works with the staff who run this excellent program. Please help us support this program so that abandoned babies get the care they need and have the chance to grow up in a loving and nurturing family. $100 will provide milk for a baby for two months. Please consider donating today.

Donations of any amount are most welcome and will be a tremendous help. You can send a check to Friendship with Cambodia, PO Box 5231, Eugene, OR 97405, or you can donate online at: friendshipwithcambodia.org. Donations are tax-deductible.

Friendship with Cambodia is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that has been providing humanitarian aid to Cambodia for the past 23 years.

Bhavia Wagner is the Founder and Executive Director of Friendship with Cambodia and the author of Soul Survivors: Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia.

The Landmine Museum entrance in Siem Reap,Cambodia is lined with disarmed bombs from the United States bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

Most farmers in Cambodia plant rice to feed their family. Crop failures are very common now because of climate change. The result is rural families struggling to survive. The USAID sustainable agriculture programs that might have helped them were de-funded.

Foster parents in Cambodia with their new baby. This program, to take care of babies who are abandoned in hospitals, used to be funded by USAID.

Landmine survivors are being fitted for prosthesis. Around 1 million Cambodians live in areas where there are landmines.