Rubi Lama, now 28, has spent most of her adult life working in aid. But with a brief presidential order early last year, Donald Trump cut off much of US aid. Since then, Lama is just one of more than 280,000 people worldwide who have been laid off.
The withdrawal of money from the aid agency USAID therefore affects not only the millions of people globally who have previously received aid, but also the staff who distributed the aid.
A decision from a powerful country - and all this support is missing, says Manisha Dhakal, who heads the Nepalese LGBTQ organization Blue Diamond Society (BDS).
The Trump administration's presidential order is leading to people dying, she says, according to the AP news agency.
Along dusty roads
Many of those who helped sexual minorities in Nepal on behalf of USAID are themselves LGBTQ, AP reporter Kristen Gelineau reports after a long reporting trip in the country. Trans people in particular are so discriminated against that they have extreme difficulty getting regular jobs. So many - perhaps up to half, according to Dhakal - of these thousands of people now see no other choice but to sell sex to survive.
Rubi Lama's work previously involved seeking out prostitutes along dusty country roads to distribute condoms and HIV prevention drugs. Now she goes to the same places later in the evenings to sell sex herself.
“Have no choice”
The customers are often drunk and can be violent. Sometimes the police come, but they also use violence against both sex sellers and buyers, says Lama, who is trans herself.
All my sex worker friends, including me, who do this are victims of violence.
Her rent and food amount to just over 12,000 rupees a month.
Despite all the risks they take, they only get 300-500 rupees per customer, says AP's Kristen Gelineau, after spending several weeks in LGBTQ circles in Nepal to win the trust of these vulnerable groups.
But as they all say - they have no choice. Since regular work for transgender people in Nepal is basically non-existent, the choice is literally: sex work or starvation.
