The IRC's has conducted a needs assessment after the earthquakes near Herat, Afghanistan.

During 2020, the IRC in San Jose served over 500 refugees, asylees, SIVs, and victims of trafficking from countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, and El Salvador among other distressed regions of the world. These families and individuals escaped conflict and persecution in their home countries in order to reach the United States and begin rebuilding their lives. Your contribution this holiday season not only provides families with greatly needed items, but lets them know that San Jose cares about and welcomes refugees.

Modesto Junior College instructor Emma Berdino didn’t have much hope when she learned her ESL class would be forced to go online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.   Many of her students, all women from Afghanistan recruited by the IRC in Turlock, were too tech-challenged to use a phone app to complete their homework prior to the viral outbreak.   “Most weren’t able to figure it out,” she said. “I thought, oh my goodness, we’re totally going to lose this class, because they’re not going to be able to do it.”  Berdino is grateful to be wrong, as nearly two-thirds of her students continue to take the course remotely after going exclusively online. 

Here are five reasons the IRC's Emergency Watchlist ranks Ethiopia as the country, after Afghanistan, most at risk of worsening humanitarian crisis in 2022.

The IRC in Tucson began receiving displaced Afghan families in September of 2021. All are in urgent need of safety and security. The number of families has increased due to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. The IRC calls on the Tucson and Pima County community to come together with open arms in welcome for these families, many who risked their lives providing critical and longstanding assistance to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.

After the recent transfer of power in Afghanistan, here’s a look at what Afghan women and girls need right now and what can be done to help.

The City of Turlock aims to provide a warm welcome to new refugee arrivals. On Refugee Civics Day, refugee clients and interpreters of the IRC are invited to engage in conversation about the city's inner workings and practical skills like how to dial 9-1-1. Refugee families who have fled war and persecution are made to feel safe for the first time in many years are they arrive on U.S. soil. Refugees from Afghanistan and Syria participated in the activities at Turlock City Hall and reflected on how far they had come since their initial resettlement and what they hope to achieve with their new chance at life.

It was October 16, and there were over 280 people filling into SOMArts gallery in downtown San Francisco. This was GenR’s Force for Change event, where there was an outdoor bar with a DJ, and a huge gallery space full of tables of cookies and kabobs from Afghanistan, salads from Burma, and sweets from Syria. In a black box room off to the side of the gallery, there were huge photographs, propped up on easels, of refugees girls ages 8 through 11 embodying what they want to be when they grow up. The girls, who live all around the Bay Area, were posing as doctors, lawyers, and rock stars, in culmination of an empowerment workshop called The Vision Project, which was formed in collaboration with IRC. Guests milled around, observing, eating, enjoying themselves, and then they were gathered around a stage in the main gallery.  This was where the speech was going to take place.

Learn more about the programs for U.S. allies in Afghanistan.