As part of the International Rescue Committee(IRC)'s 2022 Global Virtual Event, world famous cellist and IRC Luminary Yo-Yo Ma met with Zarlasht and Shir Zad Sarbaz,  Afghan refugees who moved to the United States in December of 2021.

“Whether you’re a refugee or a citizen, all of us have a dream.” What does it mean to run your own business? For someone rebuilding their life after a crisis, it can be a lifeline, providing independence, income and a chance to contribute to their community.

Forced to flee Haiti alone after an attempted attack on her home, Michelda sought safety in Mexico. Here, she found hope through the IRC’s Resilient Futures Program, supported by the Citi Foundation, which helps refugees build new lives through job training and employment opportunities. Now, Michelda is learning sustainable farming at the Iniciativa Agroecológica Xochimilco school, growing not just crops, but her dreams of a stable future.

Three straight years of below-average rainfall have left some 2.6 million people in northern Kenya struggling to find enough to eat. As crops and livestock are lost to the severe drought, food prices have quadrupled and malnutrition is on the rise.

Forty-year-old Thatha and her four sons escaped ISIS-controlled Hawija, Iraq, to Kirkuk in June.  Recent military operations to retake ISIS-controlled areas have already uprooted 240,000 people from their homes in cities like Fallujah and the areas south of Mosul. Some 3 million Iraqis remain trapped, living under ISIS’s brutal rule.

In April 1994, a sudden escalation in ethnic violence in Rwanda led to the massacre of some 800,000 men, women and children over a period of 100 days.