While these countries represent less than 6 percent of the world’s population, they host more than half of all people identified as being in need globally.

Armed with a new, global mandate, the IRC came to the aid of a continent struggling to transition to independence.

After a peace agreement failed to unite South Sudan last July, fighting quickly spread to previously unaffected areas. That’s when the war forced Angelina and her children to flee into the swamps, where food and clean water were scarce. 

After losing her husband to the war in South Sudan, social worker Lilian Dawa fled with her two young children to Uganda, where she helps other refugee women as an IRC community volunteer.