In 2015 world leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York made an audacious pledge. They vowed to work together to create a world in which there was: no poverty, zero hunger, good health and wellbeing, quality education, action on climate change, and gender equality.

Five years ago, as the war in Syria intensified, Ahlam Mohammad Issber fled to Lebanon with her children. “I was ready at a moment’s notice to put my three children in the middle of the floor and lay myself over them,” she recalls. “My middle child is very kind-hearted. He told me, ‘Mama, I’m not going to let you die. I want to die before you.’ That really affected me. I felt as if I had to do something for him; to take him out of those hard times we were living in.”

The International Rescue Committee is providing emergency assistance to more than half of the 14,000 people who fled the town of Damasak in northeastern Nigeria after it was attacked by insurgents.

Hear from five people on their struggles and their wishes for the future as they face some of the world's most deteriorating crises.