​ The recent dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development has plunged Southeast Asian NGOs into crisis, forcing them to urgently seek new funding sources as they struggle to continue aiding refugees and vulnerable communities.

Keo* is hiding out in one of Bangkok’s 400 Buddhist temples. “We had no choice,” says the Cambodian dissident, who fled to Thailand two years ago with his wife and three sons to escape persecution by the Phnom Penh regime. Since mid-March, the family has been sleeping in a makeshift 130-square-foot room provided by local monks after they were forced to leave a secure apartment once funded by the NGO Manushya Foundation.

The Manushya Foundation, which relied on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for 75% of its operating budget, lost access to $560,000 in funding after U.S. President Donald Trump shuttered the agency. Unable to cover rent or operational costs, the NGO has already laid off seven of its 15 staff members in Bangkok. The organization is now scrambling to find new sources of funding to rehouse 35 political refugees from authoritarian regimes in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

‘People’s lives are at risk’

“All the donors tell me we’re not the only ones asking for help — and that we need to accept this new reality,” said Emilie Palamy Pradichit, the foundation’s director. But on the ground, she warned, “people’s lives are at risk.” A last-minute boost from existing donors and a modest private foundation grant have kept the organization afloat for now. “We’ve bought a little time to diversify our funding,” she said.

Leon de Riedmatten, director of The Border Consortium (TBC) that supports 108,000 Mynmar refugees in western Thailand, called the fallout from USAID’s collapse “a total fog.” Sixty percent of TBC’s budget was tied to U.S. aid. In response, de Riedmatten travelled to Australia and New Zealand in search of alternative backers. While he was heard, there were no major commitments. As for Europe? “More money is going to defense,” he said — and humanitarian aid is paying the price.

Given the uncertainty, de Riedmatten is pushing for refugee integration in Thailand. “We’re urging the authorities to let refugees work outside the camps,” he said. Meanwhile, he noted, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ordered the federal government to resume payments to NGOs frozen under the Trump administration. Whether Washington will follow through remains unclear.

‘Time for NGOs to support each other’

“This is the end of development aid as we knew it,” said Pradichit, acknowledging the sector’s overdependence on U.S. support. From Manila, Ryan Silverio, who coordinates the ASEAN SOGIE Caucus — a Southeast Asian LGBTQ rights group — is calling for cross-sector collaboration. “With democracy in retreat and the climate crisis worsening, it’s time for NGOs across sectors — child welfare, human rights, environmental — to support each other.”

In what she describes as a “more isolationist world,” Grace Stanhope, a researcher at Australia’s Lowy Institute, sees a broader trend: “We’re witnessing a general decline in aid,” she said. “The U.S. withdrawal and shrinking European contributions may signal to Southeast Asia that the West is abandoning what was once called the liberal international order.”

(*Name has been changed for security reasons)