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They refer to themselves as the "salvage squad". After their sudden termination when foreign assistance was slashed in the past months, a collective of committed professionals decided to establish their own rescue package.

Choosing not to "wallow in misery", an ex-staffer, along with like-minded past team members, began efforts to save some of the vital initiatives that were at risk after the cuts.

Currently, nearly eighty programmes have been preserved by a facilitation effort run by Rosenbaum and other former agency employees, which has found them more than $110 million in new funding. The group behind the resource optimization project program projects it will help forty million people, including many infants and toddlers.

After the termination of operations, spending was frozen, thousands of employees were laid off, and global initiatives either stopped abruptly or were left limping toward what the leader describes as "termination points".

The former staffer and several team members were contacted by a charitable entity that "aimed to determine how they could maximize the impact of their limited resources".

They developed a list from the ended initiatives, selecting those "delivering the most life-saving aid per dollar" and where a alternative supporter could feasibly intervene and maintain operations.

They quickly realised the requirement was broader than that original entity and began to approach further funding sources.

"We dubbed ourselves the lifeboat crew at the outset," explains Rosenbaum. "The vessel has been failing, and there aren't enough emergency options for each programme to get on, and so we're attempting to literally rescue as many infants as we can, secure spots for these support channels as attainable, via the projects that are providing support."

Pro, now functioning as part of a international policy center, has garnered backing for 79 projects on its roster in more than 30 countries. Three have had original funding restored. Several others were not able to be saved in time.

Funding has come from a mix of philanthropic foundations and affluent donors. Many wish to remain unnamed.

"They come from very different backgrounds and opinions, but the shared sentiment that we've heard from them is, 'People are appalled by what's going on. I really want to find a method to step in,'" says Rosenbaum.

"I think that there was an 'lightbulb moment' for everyone involved as we began operating on this, that this created an chance to pivot from the inactivity and despair, remaining in the distress of everything that was happening around us, to having a constructive endeavor to deeply commit to."

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

It is crucial to maintain these operations, states the economist, not only because restarting operations if they stopped would be extremely costly but also because of how much confidence would be lost in the war-torn regions if the organization left.

"The organization shared […] 'there is fear that if we walk away, we may never be invited back.'"

Projects with longer-term goals, such as improving medical infrastructure, or in additional areas such as education, have not been part of the initiative's scope. It also does not seek to save the projects indefinitely but to "create a window for the entities and, honestly, the broader ecosystem, to devise a sustainable answer".

After securing funding for all projects on its original roster, the team says it will now prioritize reaching more people with "proven, cost-effective interventions".