More than a decade after he had been separated from his younger brother, Ali, Mehdi was about to greet him at the Frankfurt, Germany, airport.

The world is celebrating the extraordinary rescue of the Wild Boars soccer team from a flooded cave network in the Mai Sai district of Thailand, but the incident has also shined a spotlight on a humanitarian crisis on the Thailand-Myanmar border that has been overlooked since the start of military rule in Myanmar in the 1960s.

The 2400 Miles Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the international refugee crisis and supporting organizations like the IRC in Silver Spring. In the summer of 2018, the organization will participate in the Great Pacific Race, rowing from California to Hawaii in order to raise awareness of the refugee crisis.

Netflix’s Transatlantic is based on a historical fiction book that tells the story of Varian Fry and his team’s work evacuating refugees from Vichy France during World War II. Their legacy is a central part of the IRC’s foundation. Find out more about our origin story and the inspiration behind Transatlantic here.

As some of the earliest hit states in the pandemic, NY and NJ responded with empathy, resourcefulness and energy to ensure all new arrivals and established refugees weathered the storm.

Volunteering with the IRC in Dallas provides an enriching cross-cultural experience and allows you to learn more about the refugee experience first-hand.