MARIA Carla Gullotta, executive director of Stand Up For Jamaica, is pleading for financial assistance as the human rights entity faces an uncertain future in the wake of the fall-off in funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Stand Up For Jamaica, a non-profit that advocates for vulnerable people across the island, is one of many non-government organisations (NGOs) locally, and around the world, hard-hit by the Trump Administration’s decision to shutter USAID.

But Gullotta is determined to keep the entity active and is reaching out to potential donors for help to keep it above water.

“Stand Up has around 30 people working and we spend a lot of money to buy material. We have to buy stationery, books, fans, computers, so the expenses of Stand Up are pretty big. I hope something will happen and I hope we will receive some funds from other countries such as Canada, those in the European Union, and Caribbean Community because we don’t want to disconnect,” a worried Gullotta said.

According to Gullotta, local NGOs have been trying various fund-raising activities to stay afloat while applying to global organisations for grant funding.

“To keep the projects going, each one of us is trying to raise funds, applying to other countries and donors. There is a general concern because USAID has stopped sending money for HIV and there are a couple of NGOs with clinics, which distribute medication and test people for free. When you cut the funds, it is difficult to work at the same level. All of us are worried and we are trying to patch it up the best way,” Gullotta told the Jamaica Observer.

“Stand Up had to reduce a project on gender-based violence because we didn’t have the funds. Now we are applying again for other funds and we are hoping we can start again. We stopped the project for six months and that means we had to dismiss a couple of people working for us. They were totally innocent. They were doing a good job.

“We cannot continue, for example, the classes we were doing to provide women with professional skills. The idea with the gender-based violence was to make it a sort of realistic approach and not just give them workshops about their rights, etc, but in our database there was a huge amount of women who were in family situations which are abusive and when they don’t have a job, they don’t have an income so it is hard for them to take a stand. The idea was to also give them a skill,” Gullotta added as she noted that the entity also offered a cosmetology course to vulnerable women.

She underscored that the course was not just for vulnerable women in Kingston and St Andrew, but was also operated in other parishes, including Portland and St Thomas.

“Sunday I was in Portland and one girl stopped me and said she applied and wanted to know when she could come. I felt really bad,” Gullotta said.

“We discovered how much the rural areas were in need. We discovered that there were no programmes on gender-based violence, basically. We started a programme and had to pause it. Since April, nothing has been going on for them; right now a second batch is on standby,” she said.

Gullotta is also concerned about the impact that a lack of adequate funding has been having on a programme it runs in the the island’s prisons.

“I am trying my best not to disconnect the project at the Department of Correctional Services. Stand Up has been working with the prisons since 2007 and we have been promoting rehabilitation and integration, but if by December we don’t finalise better funds, it will be hard to continue.

“Even the shelter for the homeless and the campaign with the mentally ill [are in danger]. The attorneys are working for free. Before, we were paying them but we cannot continue to pretend that the attorneys will work for free forever.

“All the organisations which are working on human rights matters have seen a reduction of the funding. I feel guilty because I don’t want to damage the women, children, mentally ill, and the homeless. I feel guilty, even though it is not my fault. I am seeing the impact it has been having on our clients. A total shutdown is the last thing I would want to see happening. What I want to do is to help as many people as possible. At this moment, we are helping less than before,” a concerned Gullotta lamented.

But even as she contemplates a bleak future, Gullotta pointed out that there are some of her partners who have helped keep the organisation afloat since the USAID funding cut.

“I have to say a huge thank you to the Jamaican diaspora. They have sent some donations. They might be abroad but they are very much present in Jamaica in terms of help. I also want to thank the Rototom Festival, which is a huge festival in Spain, which is sending some funds for us,” said Gullotta.

Stand Up For Jamaica was formed in 2002 as a registered charity and started to work with the correctional services in 2007.

“In the prisons the organisation has impacted more than 1,600 male inmates and more than 600 women through rehabilitation,” Gullotta shared.

She added that a lot of women who are victims of domestic violence turn to Stand Up For Jamaica for help.

“We provide them with legal representation and social workers. If they don’t have a birth certificate, a tax registration number, if they want to start a business, we give them a person to guide them through all this process to achieve what they want to achieve.

“These are abused women. We provide them with a professional skill and we provide legal representation because they might need to go to court. The social worker is very precious to them,” said Gullotta.

She added: “Also, with the mentally ill, it is the same. We were recognised for our help to George Williams who was detained for 50 years without trial. He was awarded $120 million. This money now will help him spend the last part of his life in the most comfortable way in his own house, with his nurses. We want to do that for others, too. How long can I ask the attorneys to continue to work without any compensation? I commend them to the maximum, but I do not think this can last.”