The Family Planning Summit (FP Summit), convened in London on 11 July 2017, presents a critical opportunity to accelerate efforts to deliver family planning to women and girls globally.

The past few months have seen some of the bloodiest fighting in more than seven years of civil war in Syria as attacks intensify in Eastern Ghouta, including a suspected chemical weapons attack on April 8 in the town of Douma. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and our partners are there providing support for civilians living under siege.

Fresh from filming the latest season of Showtime’s Homeland,actor and activist Mandy Patinkin traveled to Uganda this month with the International Rescue Committee to see what happens when refugees are given welcome. Along with his wife Kathryn and son Isaac he met resilient, resourceful people who are restarting their lives in a country that has made a choice to build bridges, not walls.