Um Abdo and her family have become internally displaced by the war in Syria—2021 marks a decade of the conflict. Violence, displacement and humanitarian needs continue to grow, putting Syria third in the IRC’s Emergency Watchlist of humanitarian crises for the coming year. Despite this, Um Abdo has been able to earn an income to support her family by sewing masks at home that the IRC delivers to the community for free.

It's Jori's first week of kindergarten in Dallas, Texas. Her big brother Majed just started Third Grade. Their family arrived as refugees from war-torn Syria nearly two years ago. Jori and Majed's mother, Bothina, was a teacher back home. She and her husband Tamam are glad their children are safe and in a good school, and now have a brighter future in America. Learn more about their family's new life.

Paind Khan has big plans for his biryani—the savory mixed rice dish is going to be the first meal he'll cook for his wife when they're reunited. When that will be, he's not sure. He has not seen his family in 7 months, they're living in Germany and he's in Greece—he cannot join them unless his family reunification case has been accepted. Read Panid's story.

Actor and activist Mandy Patinkin recently witnessed first­hand the refugee crisis engulfing Europe. Alongside International Rescue Committee aid workers in Greece, he met families who had fled Syria and other war­torn countries in hopes of finding a better life for their children in Europe. “Standing with them, I did not see strangers to be feared but the faces and stories of my own family.

Divin was one of the last refugees to arrive in Boise, Idaho before a Trump Administration executive order barred refugees from entering the U.S. It was two years before his wife and young son could join him. Now they are welcoming the remaining members of their family, who had been stranded in a refugee camp in Burundi for 15 years.