Ahlan Simsim reaches children and families wherever they are—from classrooms, health clinics, and learning centers to TVs and mobile devices—through programming integrating direct services for families with award-winning educational media, including a locally produced version of Sesame Street.

For children to succeed academically and thrive in their schools, parent engagement is critical. Although parent access within schools may be limited for refugee parents at times, they work to make connections with teachers and support their children’s education.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, neighbors are working together with the International Rescue Committee to build up and improve their communities. They're making and influencing decisions that affect their communities' futures—for example, deciding whether to build new schools or health centers, improve roads or construct water collection points.

We are honored that the MacArthur Foundation has selected this program as the winner of its 100&Change competition, a one-time $100 million grant to "make measurable progress toward solving a significant problem of our time." This award allows the IRC and Sesame Street to create what will be the largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian response.

Last year, the IRC in Seattle launched the Better Together Family Program to support refugee mothers of young children who are new to the Seattle area. Program participants recently went on a fun, educational, and quintessentially Seattle outing to the Pacific Science Center – complete with a ride on the monorail! Learn more about this exciting new program.

Jean joined fellow professionals in this unique opportunity to network with experts within the Haitian diaspora specializing in technology, education, business, entrepreneurship, and politics. He spoke with Haitian-American elected officials and Haitian government officials about important topics such as migration and international development. He also attended sessions on leadership, career development, and entrepreneurship, which spoke deeply to his values and his commitment to leadership and service.

The IRC in New York’s POWER (Providing Opportunities for Women’s Economic Resilience) program has completed its second training for women interested in careers in childcare! The program focuses on developing women’s existing professional skills related to childcare while exposing program participants to more formalized childhood development and education theory. 

The Healing Hands project of the International Rescue Committee seeks to support the comprehensive development, care and protection of migrant boys and girls and members of the host community from 0 to 5 years old in Ecuador. After the initial implementation of Healing Hands, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) developed a report with reflections and learnings that organizations can replicate.

Our 6,000 person staff—99 percent of them Afghans themselves—are working across 12 provinces to deliver programs in education, health and nutrition, women’s protection and empowerment, and more.