Two month old Mamie Koiwo screwed up her face in surprise and let out a brief wail as a nurse in apple green scrubs administered the polio vaccine. In October, Mamie entered the world just twenty feet away in the delivery ward of the Konia Health Centre in Lofa county, northern Liberia. Only days earlier, the last Ebola case had been registered in the country in the largest outbreak ever recorded, leading to over 4800 confirmed deaths in Liberia alone.

With millions of children caught in the crossfire of more than five years of civil war in Syria, the IRC s working on all fronts of the crisis to provide lifesaving support for them and their families.

Meet an ambitious Syrian woman who operates a beauty salon in her home in Jordan with support from the IRC.

28 years old Sahib* arrived in the UK with his family last year after fleeing Afghanistan in August. Since settling in the South East of the UK, Sahib* has been supported by the IRC’s integration programming. This month, Sahib*, his wife and their two daughters are celebrating Ramadan in the UK for the first time. He writes about his experience for the IRC.

Supporting the integration of refugees has become an issue of priority for Greece. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), with longstanding experience in supporting refugees and asylum-seekers in many countries around the world, believes that integration is a pathway that, in order to be successful, should begin as soon as possible and should also be supported in a way that takes into account the strengths and needs of refugee women in particular. In this briefing, the IRC recommends that Greece seizes the opportunity of the ongoing negotiations on the next European Union (EU) Multi Annual Financial Framework6 to devise a pragmatic long-term integration strategy and an accompanying action plan to evaluate its progress, through measurable indicators.