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These individuals refer to themselves as the "salvage squad". After losing their jobs when international support was slashed earlier this year, a group of dedicated workers chose to launch their own emergency initiative.

Declining to "wallow in misery", Rob Rosenbaum, along with like-minded past team members, initiated actions to preserve some of the essential projects that were at risk after the reductions.

Currently, close to 80 initiatives have been preserved by a matchmaking service managed by the leader and other former aid staff, which has secured them in excess of $110 million in recent backing. The team behind the Project Resource Optimization effort estimates it will help millions of people, including many children under five.

After the agency closure, spending was frozen, numerous staff lost their jobs, and projects worldwide either stopped abruptly or were barely continuing toward what the economist calls "termination points".

He and several team members were reached out to by a philanthropic organization that "sought to understand how they could optimize the utilization of their finite budgets".

They built a menu from the cancelled projects, pinpointing those "providing the most life-saving aid per dollar" and where a alternative supporter could feasibly intervene and maintain operations.

They soon understood the demand was broader than that initial entity and started to contact other potential donors.

"We called ourselves the lifeboat crew at the start," explains the economist. "The vessel has been failing, and there aren't enough rescue vessels for all initiatives to be saved, and so we're trying to literally rescue as many infants as we can, secure spots for these support channels as possible, via the initiatives that are offering assistance."

The project, now working as part of a research organization, has garnered backing for 79 projects on its list in over thirty countries. Three have had original funding reinstated. Several others were not able to be saved in time.

Funding has originated from a combination of non-profit entities and affluent donors. The majority prefer to stay unnamed.

"The supporters come from varied reasons and perspectives, but the common thread that we've encountered from them is, 'I am horrified by what's unfolding. I truly desire to find a method to step in,'" notes the leader.

"In my view that there was an 'eureka moment' for everyone involved as we began operating on this, that this created an possibility to transition from the inactivity and despair, remaining in the gloom of everything that was happening around us, to having a constructive endeavor to really sink our teeth into."

A specific initiative that has secured backing through the effort is activities by the Alima to provide services such as nutritional rehabilitation, maternal health care and vital childhood vaccines in the country.

It is crucial to maintain these operations, says the leader, not only because restarting operations if they ended would be prohibitively pricey but also because of how much reliance would be eroded in the zones of instability if the organization left.

"The organization informed us […] 'there is fear that if we depart, we may never be invited back.'"

Programmes with extended objectives, such as strengthening health systems, or in other fields such as education, have remained outside Pro's work. It also is not trying to maintain initiatives permanently but to "provide a buffer for the entities and, honestly, the larger network, to figure out a permanent resolution".

Now that they have obtained backing for every initiative on its original roster, the team says it will now focus on assisting additional individuals with "tested, efficient solutions".