The International Rescue Committee has been working in Pakistan since 1980. Within hours of the devastating earthquake on Oct. 8, 2005, IRC teams were on their way to the hardest hit areas to distribute emergency supplies and assist the survivors, with special emphasis on the needs of women and children.

Up to 300,000 refugees and migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and other war-torn lands have fled to Europe this year, and most have landed on Greece’s eastern islands. Aid workers with the International Rescue Committee have been providing critical aid and services on Lesbos which has struggled to cope with the massive influx of up to 3,000 refugees arriving daily.

Thousands of people are fleeing their homes as the Iraqi army, Kurdish Peshmerga and coalition forces fight to retake Mosul — Iraq's second largest city — from the ISIS militant group. The IRC is providing emergency cash relief and other support to displaced families.

In the weeks after the December 2004 tsunami, survivors in devastated Aceh province, Indonesia, who were made homeless by the waves, found themselves in often crowded living conditions that put them at an increased risk for many kinds of infectious disease. The IRC responded immediately with emergency medical care and water and sanitation programs that dramatically reduced the potential for mass outbreaks.