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They refer to themselves as the "emergency rescue team". After their sudden termination when international support faced cuts in the past months, a group of devoted professionals decided to establish their own support program.

Refusing to "wallow in misery", an ex-staffer, along with like-minded past team members, started endeavors to preserve some of the essential initiatives that were at risk after the reductions.

Currently, close to 80 projects have been rescued by a connector platform run by the economist and additional ex- team members, which has obtained them over $110m in recent backing. The group behind the Pro program estimates it will benefit millions of people, including many young kids.

After the agency closure, funds were halted, a large workforce was let go, and global initiatives either ended suddenly or were left limping toward what the leader terms "termination points".

The former staffer and several team members were reached out to by a foundation that "sought to understand how they could optimize the utilization of their limited resources".

They created a list from the cancelled projects, identifying those "providing the most life-saving aid per dollar" and where a new funder could feasibly step in and maintain operations.

They rapidly understood the need was broader than that initial organization and began to reach out to other potential donors.

"We referred to ourselves as the lifeboat crew at the start," explains Rosenbaum. "The organization has been sinking, and there aren't enough rescue vessels for every project to get on, and so we're striving to literally rescue as many babies as we can, get as many on to these support channels as attainable, via the programmes that are delivering aid."

Pro, now working as part of a global development thinktank, has garnered backing for 79 projects on its roster in more than 30 countries. Three have had prior support restored. Nine were could not be preserved in time.

Funding has come from a blend of non-profit entities and private benefactors. The majority wish to remain anonymous.

"They stem from varied backgrounds and opinions, but the shared sentiment that we've encountered from them is, 'People are horrified by what's happening. I sincerely wish to discover an approach to help,'" says the leader.

"I think that there was an 'aha moment' for the entire team as we began operating on this, that this opened up an opportunity to transition from the passive sadness, dwelling on the misery of everything that was happening around us, to having a constructive endeavor to really sink our teeth into."

An example programme that has found backing through the initiative is work by the Alima to deliver care including care for malnourished children, maternity services and crucial pediatric vaccinations in Mali.

It is essential to keep such programmes going, says the leader, not only because reinitiating work if they ended would be extremely costly but also because of how much reliance would be forfeited in the zones of instability if the group withdrew.

"The organization informed us […] 'we're very worried that if we walk away, we may be unable to return.'"

Initiatives with longer-term goals, such as bolstering healthcare networks, or in other fields such as learning, have been excluded from the project's focus. It also does not seek to save the projects indefinitely but to "provide a buffer for the entities and, honestly, the larger network, to determine a sustainable answer".

After securing support for every initiative on its initial list, the initiative says it will now concentrate on assisting more people with "established, economical measures".