Transforming Lives

Speeches Shim

Every day, all over the world, USAID brings peace to those who endure violence, health to those who struggle with sickness, and prosperity to those who live in poverty. It is these individuals — these uncounted thousands of lives — that are the true measure of USAID’s successes and the true face of USAID's programs.

January 2017—My Bach, a biotechnology undergraduate student in Hanoi, is passionate about pursuing a career in science, but concerned about the low number of female colleagues in the field in Southeast Asia.

Being able to reach a health facility can spell the difference between life and death for millions of rural Tanzanians. Harsh terrain, lack of transportation, and punishing distances often stand in the way. Thanks to the power of mobile technology, however, things are starting to change. Read how one expectant mother was able to get to her district hospital for urgent care thanks to dedicated local health workers, a phone call, and a little innovation.

“Help me. I’ve been trafficked.” This was the private social media message USAID and the International Organization for Migration’s IOM X project received in August of last year. The sender was 26-year-old Pisey* from Cambodia. He was trapped in a foreign country on a remote island far from home and needed help.

Before the harvest, Mary Utsewa touched an ear of maize so large she could hardly get her hand around it. She looked at the stalks reaching above her head and considered her good fortune. Driven from her fields for three growing seasons by Boko Haram, Utsewa is a farmer again

When Michael Saunders was 8 years old, he dreamed of becoming a gangster. But, growing up on the streets of St. Kitts, he learned the hard way that crime does not pay.

When 22-year-old Chevaly Tartullian talks about her kids, her face lights up like a child’s in a candy store. She lives for them.

Merifa Muvwera’s caretaking responsibilities include her 3-year-old daughter, who was born with Down syndrome, and her 70-year-old mother-in-law, who is paralyzed from the waist down. Muvwera spends her days supervising, bathing, washing clothes, cleaning, cooking and cultivating food for her family.

In Zamboanga City and other conflict-affected areas of Mindanao, the southern region of the Philippines, nearly a quarter of the youth are out of school—more than twice the national average

Maria* was only 13 when she was trafficked. She now participates in group therapy in Zambales province, north of Manila, to help process her difficult experiences.

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