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The group refer to themselves as the "emergency rescue team". Following their sudden termination when foreign assistance was slashed recently, a collective of dedicated workers decided to establish their own rescue package.

Refusing to "wallow in misery", an ex-staffer, along with equally dedicated former agency staff, initiated actions to rescue some of the vital programmes that were threatened with termination after the cuts.

Now, close to 80 projects have been preserved by a facilitation effort managed by the economist and fellow past team members, which has obtained them more than $110 million in new funding. The team behind the resource optimization project initiative projects it will help millions of people, including many young kids.

After the agency closure, spending was frozen, numerous staff lost their jobs, and projects worldwide either came to a shuddering halt or were barely continuing toward what Rosenbaum terms "final deadlines".

The former staffer and several team members were approached by a charitable entity that "aimed to understand how they could maximize the impact of their constrained funds".

They built a list from the terminated programmes, identifying those "delivering the most life-saving aid per dollar" and where a new funder could feasibly get involved and keep things going.

They rapidly understood the demand was more extensive than that original organization and began to reach out to other potential donors.

"We called ourselves the lifeboat crew at the beginning," states Rosenbaum. "The ship has been collapsing, and there aren't enough emergency options for every project to be saved, and so we're trying to truly protect as many young children as we can, place as many onto these support channels as feasible, via the projects that are providing support."

The project, now working as part of a research organization, has secured funding for 79 projects on its selection in more than 30 countries. A few have had prior support returned. A number were could not be preserved in time.

Financial support has come from a combination of charitable organizations and affluent donors. Most choose to be unidentified.

"The supporters come from diverse motivations and viewpoints, but the shared sentiment that we've encountered from them is, 'I feel appalled by what's unfolding. I sincerely wish to discover an approach to step in,'" notes the leader.

"In my view that there was an 'lightbulb moment' for the entire team as we commenced efforts on this, that this provided an possibility to pivot from the passive sadness, dwelling on the gloom of everything that was happening around us, to having something productive to fully engage with."

A specific initiative that has found support through the effort is activities by the Alliance for International Medical Action to offer support such as care for malnourished children, maternity services and vital childhood vaccines in the country.

It is vital to keep such programmes going, states the leader, not only because resuming activities if they ended would be extremely costly but also because of how much trust would be forfeited in the zones of instability if the organization withdrew.

"They told us […] 'there is fear that if we withdraw, we may never be invited back.'"

Initiatives with longer-term goals, such as improving medical infrastructure, or in other fields such as learning, have been excluded from Pro's work. It also does not seek to save the projects indefinitely but to "buy time for the groups and, honestly, the larger network, to figure out a permanent resolution".

Now that they have obtained backing for all projects on its first selection, the initiative announces it will now focus on assisting additional individuals with "proven, cost-effective interventions".