A few weeks ago, I shared with you the effects of cutting off USAID funding to my daughter’s non-profit, Our Hope South Africa (Thembalethu, in Zulu). My daughter, Betsy Meyer, had to lay off 20 caregivers of children living with HIV.

This is the follow-up letter from Betsy to her supporters in regard to the cut-off of aid:

“The short of it is that our grant funding and the wellbeing of 600 HIV positive children STILL hangs in the balance. After nearly three weeks since the [the U.S. president’s] executive stop-work order put the jobs of twenty of our staff at question, NOTHING has changed for us on the ground.

Here are a few more details:

There have been a few hopeful moments in these past two days, but they have changed nothing in our situation. Like when a US judge put a ‘stay’ on the stop-work order which unfroze many US nonprofits. Or when another judge, just yesterday, ordered an ‘unfreeze’ of existing foreign aid programs like ours. But on the ground, Thembalethu has seen no practical impact from any of this news. We have not been released to spend any more contracted funds or return to work.

Adding to the uncertainty are statements that the administration has made about freezing all funding to South Africa for disagreements with some of the nation’s political decisions. And then there’s the attempted shuttering of USAID with whom we are contracted…

In spite of all of the chaos and the ongoing uncertainty, we have been greatly encouraged by the generous gifts we have received from individuals and churches. Regardless of the immediate aftermath from this tug-of-war of power that is going on in Washington, its waves continue to impact the wellbeing of rural African villages and vulnerable people. Yet, we continue to hold tight to our calling to share love, hope and resources with the sick and vulnerable in our corner of the world. We will continue to provide the nearly 600 children living with HIV life-saving care and support, as much as resources allow.

I am also tremendously grateful for the providential timing that had me in South Africa during such a tumultuous time to help guide us and support Xoli as director through all the uncertainties.

We would be most grateful for your ongoing prayers for Thembalethu and other ministries and southern African nonprofits facing this situation. If you are able to support our ongoing work to support the most vulnerable HIV positive children, you can visit www.ourhope.org.za/give.

Many thanks for your support and care for the Zulu people.

Blessings, Betsy”

Elon Musk’s order and the president’s agreement to freeze funding to USAID, and the announcement of Musk’s plan to dismantle it and to fire its staff is clearly unconstitutional. Only Congress has the power to make laws and create government and fund or defund agencies, not the executive branch.

We the people are the stated powers delegated by the preamble to the Constitution. We the people are the final arbiters of executive branch actions. Allowing the president to ignore 236 years of history and tradition and precedent is a deep threat to our democracy. The legacy media discusses the possibility of a “constitutional crisis” over the power of the president. That’s a euphemism for a Coup d’ Etat—an overthrow of our representative democracy.

Why would you trust a billionaire and trillionaire to act in your best interest when we all know that the reason for income inequality in this country lies with the increasing control by the 0.1%? There is great irony in the world’s richest man dismantling aid to the world’s poorest.

Is this the kind of America we want to be? Isn’t it good policy to help the poor around the world, especially when the U.S. government spends less than 1% of the federal budget on foreign aid? U.S. foreign aid feeds and provides medical aid to millions. It creates good relationships in the form of soft power where the aid is distributed.

The defunding of my daughter’s non-profit in South Africa is just a symptom of a much larger issue. We need to be concerned for the poor nationwide and internationally. It’s part of who and what America is. It’s part of what most of the readers of this column believe in.

It’s what has made the United States an exceptional nation.