Two Baltimore-based global aid groups affiliated with Johns Hopkins University began to lay off staff Thursday as officials grappled with massive federal funding cuts.

Jhpiego, the Center for Communication Programs and the Hopkins School of Medicine will layoff 1,975 people in 44 countries — the largest job cut in university history. There will also be 247 eliminated in the United States, mostly in Baltimore, in the wake of near-death cutbacks at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“This is a difficult day for our entire community. The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally,” the university said in a statement.

“Johns Hopkins is immensely proud of the work done by our colleagues in Jhpiego, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the School of Medicine to care for mothers and infants, fight disease, provide clean drinking water, and advance countless other critical, life-saving efforts around the world,” the statement said.

Jhpiego was founded more than a half-century ago and has had a focus on improving health for women and children. It managed hundreds of millions of dollars in grants from USAID and other federal agencies and philanthropic organizations, reaching more than 40 countries at any given time. Overseeing some $100 million in programs in 40 to 50 countries, the Center for Communication Programs is housed in the university’s public health school.

The school of medicine had USAID funding for international programs but officials did not detail the nature of those grants.

Hopkins officials said an additional 29 international and 78 U.S. employees will be furloughed with a reduced schedule. Officials didn’t immediately say what percentage of the organizations’ positions have been or will ultimately be eliminated.

The aid groups collectively employ thousands.

All the workers will be given at least 60 days’ notice before the layoffs or furloughs take effect. They will be given “comprehensive support with additional benefits, assistance, and resources to help employees navigate this transition and explore new opportunities,” the statement said.

The groups' budgets are heavily reliant on federal grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development. USAID has effectively been shuttered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, under the Trump administration.

The groups have other funding, though Hopkins did not say if the programs will remain standalone organizations.

The layoffs were not unexpected, but still a blow to the affected individuals, the university and to the Baltimore region, which has a disproportionate number of global aid groups and thousands of employees among them.

Catholic Relief Services, the biggest recipient of USAID funding, and Global Relief, which received other foreign aid for immigration and refugee services, also have begun laying off staff in Baltimore and globally. Cutbacks have also affected more than 100 contractors who have work that has been, or could now be, cancelled.

“What has begun will not be easily reversed,” said Judd Walson, a doctor at Johns Hopkins who has seen much of his research halted. “We will undoubtedly see the crumbling of both public health and clinical infrastructure around the world because of this.” Walson works to address child mortality across the globe.

At another Hopkins affiliated aid group, the Center for Communication Programs, USAID did reverse course on one small grant to tackle a severe outbreak of the mpox virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The group got a 30-day waiver to work on prevention activities, according to its website.

The program’s community health workers are again going door-to-door in the country’s capital city, Kinshasa, to ensure people are taking proper precautions and getting vaccinated. The workers refer them for care if they show symptoms of the disease or have been previously diagnosed.

International aid experts have said this kind of work benefits people directly in other countries while also building goodwill, preventing the nation’s enemies from gaining a foothold, and blocking viral outbreaks from reaching the United States.

“America has always been known for its technical expertise and for its willingness to be supportive of the mission of improving health around the world,” Walson said. “Now those funds are being withdrawn very abruptly with no time to prepare, which is causing public health infrastructure to crumble.”

There was an mpox outbreak in 2022 that began in Africa and eventually infected 32,000 and killed 58 in the United States.

“Diseases do not know borders, and in our increasingly interconnected world we must do everything we can to stop diseases like mpox wherever they start,” said Debora B. Freitas López, executive director of the Center for Communication Programs, in a statement. “If we do not stop this dangerous strain of mpox from spreading in Africa, we will not only see more preventable deaths and suffering there, but we could see it return to the U.S. This is why the work we do is so important.”

Walson echoed Freitas Lopez’s sentiments, saying “an already extremely urgent situation is becoming catastrophic.”

He said that the drastic reduction of health research and aid to developing countries will lead to a global economic crisis that will impact the political stability of countries across the world.

“As economies stutter, as people sicken, political realities change,” Walson said. “Conflict and wars will ensue.”

Ron Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University, forecast job cuts earlier this month in a letter to staff and students. More than $800 million in foreign aid contracts managed by the two groups and the Hopkins School of Medicine had been terminated, according to Daniels’ letter.

That is in addition to an estimated $200 million per year in biomedical research grants that are on the chopping block from the National Institutes of Health. The university is frequently the top recipient of NIH funding.

Together, cuts to research and aid dollars are expected be a significant blow to the region, which is heavily dependent on the thousands of workers and the jobs related to companies that provide services or are built on the innovations developed in the institutions.