As part of Donald Trump's drastic USAID cuts, development projects around the world have been halted. The same is true in Moldova, where many rural development projects will not now go ahead.
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00:00Leonid Boagy is the mayor of Sirec, a village near Moldova's capital, Chisinau.
00:06He's on his way to the local fire station, which was built with the financial support
00:10of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, to the tune of approximately
00:15US$114,000.
00:17Boagy applied for money for a new project that would have made the fire station more
00:22energy-efficient.
00:23But although the application was approved, the Trump administration's subsequent slashing
00:28of USAID funding means that this money won't be coming anymore, at least for now.
00:34The new USAID project had earmarked several hundred thousand US dollars to increase the
00:52energy efficiency of the fire station and for other projects in the village.
01:22Since 1992, USAID has provided Moldova with over one billion dollars in assistance.
01:40Most of this sum was invested in social and infrastructure projects, for example in education,
01:46tourism or agriculture.
01:48Ștefan Bejan, of the NGO Watchdog in Chisinau, says that the support provided by USAID has
01:54always come in times of crisis for the Republic of Moldova.
02:18Overall, USAID has made a massive contribution to Moldova's development.
02:28Mayor Boagy still hopes that American aid will be resumed.
02:57The Trump administration has said that financial assistance may be resumed as long as the
03:02projects in question align with America's interests, but no one can say for sure what
03:07exactly that means.
03:08So for the moment, key projects in the village of Sirec and countless others elsewhere in
03:14Moldova remain in limbo.