Ahead of a Senate hearing on appropriations for the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, the IRC submitted testimony to urge Congress to increase funding for programs that provide overseas and emergency refugee assistance, basic education, malnutrition relief, services for vulnerable children, and programs to counter gender-based violence. The IRC also asked Congress to work to improve the effectiveness, transparency, and accountability of humanitarian financing and to allocate 20,000 additional Special Immigrant Visas for U.S.-affiliated Afghans in FY22.

The IRC recognizes that with support and investment, adolescent girls can transform their lives and their communities. Working with girls instead of on behalf of girls, the IRC’s programs are driven and led by girls in a way that empowers them long into the future.

When violence displaced Amina Umaru Toko, 53, to Gwoza, Nigeria, she found herself suddenly caring for her critically ill grandchild.

The IRC’s education programming for primary school-aged children has three overarching goals: (1) to ensure that children enroll in and attend school regularly; (2) to protect children from all forms of violence in school and on their way to school; and (3) to build fundamental reading, math and social-emotional skills.