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They call themselves as the "salvage squad". Following their sudden termination when foreign assistance faced cuts in the past months, a collective of dedicated professionals opted to launch their own emergency initiative.

Refusing to "remain in despair", an ex-staffer, along with equally dedicated former agency staff, initiated endeavors to rescue some of the essential programmes that were threatened with termination after the cuts.

At present, close to 80 programmes have been rescued by a facilitation effort managed by the leader and additional ex- team members, which has found them over $110m in new funding. The collective behind the Project Resource Optimization initiative estimates it will assist forty million people, encompassing many children under five.

After the office shutdown, spending was frozen, thousands of employees were laid off, and global initiatives either ended suddenly or were struggling toward what Rosenbaum calls "termination points".

He and a few co-workers were contacted by a charitable entity that "aimed to determine how they could optimize the utilization of their constrained funds".

They built a selection from the ended initiatives, pinpointing those "delivering the most critical assistance per dollar" and where a new funder could feasibly intervene and keep things going.

They rapidly recognized the requirement was wider than that initial entity and started to approach further funding sources.

"We dubbed ourselves the lifeboat crew at the beginning," explains Rosenbaum. "The ship has been sinking, and there are insufficient rescue vessels for every project to board, and so we're striving to literally rescue as many infants as we can, secure spots for these rescue options as attainable, via the programmes that are providing support."

Pro, now operating as part of a global development thinktank, has secured funding for 79 projects on its selection in in excess of 30 countries. Several have had original funding returned. Nine were not able to be saved in time.

Backing has come from a blend of non-profit entities and private benefactors. Most prefer to stay unnamed.

"They come from varied backgrounds and opinions, but the shared sentiment that we've received from them is, 'I feel shocked by what's going on. I sincerely wish to figure out a way to step in,'" notes Rosenbaum.

"I believe that there was an 'lightbulb moment' for everyone involved as we commenced efforts on this, that this opened up an chance to shift from the passive sadness, wallowing in the misery of everything that was happening around us, to having a constructive endeavor to fully engage with."

One project that has obtained support through the initiative is work by the the medical alliance to deliver care including care for malnourished children, prenatal and postnatal support and vital childhood vaccines in the country.

It is vital to maintain these operations, says the economist, not only because reinitiating work if they ended would be hugely expensive but also because of how much confidence would be forfeited in the conflict-ravaged areas if the alliance left.

"The organization informed us […] 'we're very worried that if we walk away, we may never be invited back.'"

Projects with longer-term goals, such as strengthening health systems, or in different sectors such as learning, have been excluded from Pro's work. It also does not aim to preserve programmes forever but to "create a window for the organizations and, truthfully, the broader ecosystem, to determine a longer-term solution".

After securing backing for all projects on its first selection, the team states it will now prioritize assisting more people with "established, economical measures".