| The proudly independent first line of defense for the world's most vulnerable, nonprofits are now turning to governments for help. Dr. Ayoade Alakija, Nigeria’s former chief humanitarian coordinator, is worried. For decades, millions of vulnerable people across the world escaping conflict and natural disasters or lacking basic social amenities or simply needing humanitarian assistance have depended on charities. Now, the coronavirus pandemic is turning a global nonprofit sector that traditionally supports others into a desperate seeker of help itself from an unlikely source: governments. With a near-global lockdown, charities — which pointedly also call themselves nongovernmental organizations — are struggling in the face of canceled fundraisers and the prospect of a sharp cut in donations. There’s precedence. Between 2007 and 2009, during the Great Recession, charitable giving in America dropped 15 percent from $376 billion to $321 billion. A similar fall globally could force critical nonprofits to scale back — or even withdraw — from vulnerable regions like West Africa that depend on them, fear experts like Alakija. | 
