Planson International founder said its revenue could be cut in half this year if USAID dismantling stands.
| Joe Lawlor, Press Herald |
The Trump administration’s hobbling of USAID is upending Planson International in New Gloucester, and its revenue could be cut in half this year if USAID’s dismantling is allowed to stand, the company’s founder said.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided humanitarian aid around the world since the 1960s. But the Trump administration has crippled USAID, ending contracts, laying off workers and gutting the agency. The future of USAID is now playing out in the courts after critics challenged the president’s authority to make the cuts without congressional approval.
Planson provides IT and communications support for USAID recipients in developing countries, creating uncertainty about its future.
Connie Justice, Planson International’s founder, said it’s “awful and shameful” to see USAID gutted when, for a tiny fraction of the federal government’s funds, “we can help people who through no fault of their own are starving and miserable and persecuted.”
Planson is a for-profit company, but its mission is to provide IT support and communications devices to developing countries, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations that provide humanitarian assistance.
Justice said there’s much uncertainty about what’s going to happen next. Planson doesn’t directly get USAID funding, but many of the humanitarian agencies it works with across the globe do, and many contracts with those agencies have ended.
“We’ve seen a real uneven year,” Justice said. “We hope to keep everyone employed, get foreign assistance re-established in the U.S. where we can re-take our place helping the less fortunate in this world.”
Justice said some examples of Planson’s work include giving laptop computers to every K-12 student in El Salvador, delivering satellite radios to countries hit with natural disasters, and providing IT support to countries that are trying to set up more robust identification systems for their citizens.
“If you don’t have an identity, you can’t get access to services, vote or participate in government,” Justice said. “We do a lot of work on election integrity in these countries.”
