The IRC in Salt Lake City is facing an urgent need of refugee housing. We are launching The Welcome Home Project as an ask to the public to help us provide emergency assistance through funds, employment, and resources.

Thousands of refugees escaping violence and persecution travel along the Central Mediterranean Route – from sub-Saharan Africa, through Niger to Libya and some on to Europe. These asylum seekers face the dangers of the world's harshest extreme environments: the sea and the desert.

At the IRC, we are doing more than just imagining a different future for women and girls affected by conflict and crisis. We’re focusing our resources and capabilities to help break down each of the barriers they face.

Read the third installment of our Youth Voices, written by Mohamad Faizal, who is now a student at the Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy in Dallas.