Transforming Lives

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.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan hosts approximately 660,000 registered Syrian refugees, and its census records reflect a population increase of 1.4 million since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011. Over 80 percent of the refugees live outside of camps, in Jordanian communities throughout the country.

For children living in neighborhoods in the north of Morocco, walking to school is filled with peril. Cars whizzing through school zones at high speeds make the simple act of crossing the street a dangerous feat.

Sayeda Korga is one of the pilot interns participating in USAID Promote: Women in Government program. She began the practicum portion of the internship program with the Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC) in March 2016. Sayeda’s dedication, hard work and willingness to work in government influenced the librarian to encourage her to consider applying for a permanent position.

A year after graduating from Kabul University, Mohammad had gone on numerous interviews, but had yet to land a job. When interviewers asked him to show his practical skills with financial software, most often QuickBooks, he couldn’t do it. “In the university there was no chance of practical work in financial software,” he says.

Mohammad Dawood, a farmer from Dara Zhowandoon village of central Aybak, had sown six jeribs (1.2 hectares) of wheat this season that were largely infested with weeds. Having attended RADP-North’s weed control training, he applied herbicides to control them.

Mursal Naseer was an architecture student at the Civil Engineering Faculty of Kabul Polytechnic University when she joined the 2011-2016 Afghan Women Engineering Internship Program (AESP) in January 2016. The program provided internship opportunities for female students enrolled in civil, mechanical, electrical or architectural engineering and related programs in their final academic years.

Getting into Afghanistan civil service is not an easy thing to do, especially for women with no professional experience. But the situation is changing these days, thanks to the USAID Promote: Women in Government whose aim is to train women for government jobs that will eventually position them in decision-making roles.

Women in Lowoma village, a remote chiefdom in Kenema district, eastern Sierra Leone, are among the poorest in the country. Their most important means of generating family and community income include petty trading and peasant farming.

Mercy Edward was pregnant when fighting erupted near the home she and her husband Abraham Charles Zinone shared in Western Equatoria, South Sudan, in May 2015. The civil war that began in the capital, Juba, in December 2013 had now spread west.

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