American aid is a mighty defense against conflict, poverty and despair, especially in countries where war and violence has forced millions to flee from the places they once called home. 

A new day is dawning for Ahmed, a 17-year-old refugee from Syria. Rescued from the streets of Athens, he found a safe space to stay with the IRC in Greece and is now on his way to be reunited with his uncle in Germany.

“When you start doing anything, at first it’s going to be frightening,” Bothina Matar reassures the refugee women she works with in Dallas. She encourages them to strive for a better future—their children’s future—without forgetting their past. “I am trying my best,” Bothina tells them, “and succeeding somehow.”

Meet Firas, 22, who worked with Refugee.Info, a digital service created by the International Rescue Committee in partnership with Google, Microsoft and Trip Advisor. The online and mobile platform provides crucial information to refugees seeking asylum from war and persecution.

In this report the International Rescue Committee (IRC) demonstrates how informal education programming in Cox’s Bazar is constrained by a number of major challenges: limited and short-term funding; low quality of teaching; programme restrictions and approval delays; infrastructural limitations; and low levels of enrolment and student retention – all challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak and response