San Salvador, El Salvador, 24 August 2026 — The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is partnering with the European Union (EU), Plan International, Save the Children and Medicos del Mundo to launch a joint response across Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The program, called COMPASS (Community-based Protection, Access to Services, and Support Systems), is made possible by a € 2,100,000 grant from the EU and will run from June 2026 to May 2027, with an additional IRC-led protection response in Mexico.
Earlier this year, the IRC co-led a joint assessment that found violence, forced displacement, and gender-based violence converging across the region. More than 1.2 million people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras were internally displaced or living as refugees at the end of 2025, as violence, insecurity and climate-related hazards continue to drive displacement across the region. Regionally, one in five households surveyed reported experiencing violence directly, or through a household member.
The IRC and EU have worked together in Mexico and Guatemala for years already. As part of their last EU-granted project, they’ve reached over 20,000 people since 2024 in humanitarian need with a focus on internally displaced people, returnees, and vulnerable communities.
The launched project COMPASS is an expanded partnership now operating in El Salvador and Honduras, building on the IRC’s programming in these countries since 2017, and now in partnership with Medicos del Mundo, Plan International and Save the Children. Through a community-based and mobile service delivery approach, the project expands access to protection, mental health, primary healthcare, and sexual and reproductive health services in underserved areas, while delivering integrated case management, psychosocial support, referrals, child protection, and gender-based violence prevention and response.
“This regional approach allows us to respond more effectively to crises that do not stop at borders, while ensuring that support reaches communities that are often hardest to reach”, said Katharine Susman, Head of Latin America Region.
Along with five local partners (Tierra Nueva, AS Mujeres, UDIMUF, Barbara Ford, Refugee Health Alliance and CEDIMAC), the response will:
- Expand access to integrated protection services, including child protection, gender-based violence response delivered through a unified consortium referral pathway.
- In Mexico, the project will provide emergency cash to people when a crisis hits, so they can meet urgent needs immediately.
This unified approach offers an innovative response to humanitarian crises, providing a compass to safety for women, children, and families in hard-to-reach areas facing compounding risks with limited access to services.
The International Rescue Committee partners with the European Union to provide life-saving support to people caught in conflict and disasters around the world. Our work funded by the EU enables people to survive, recover and rebuild their lives.
