Ma J Nan was displaced from her home in Man Ga Laung village four years ago by armed conflict. She was a farmer. She lived in a bamboo house. Her family fled with her, and she was left with just her clothes.

IRC volunteer, Yousef Al-Masri is a Syrian refugee living at Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan. Yousef invented a new way to get around by welding bike parts and various other materials into mini vehicles.

Tens of thousands have fled Aleppo as Government of Syria forces took control of the east of the city following months of besiegement and aerial bombardment. In the past week, around 4,000 from Aleppo have arrived in and around Al Dana town in eastern Idleb province and will be receiving cash support from the International Rescue Committee.

The IRC is providing health screenings to hundreds of Iraqi refugees at Al Hol refugee camp in Hassakah governate, north eastern Syria.

It’s rainy and cold along the waterfront of Tripoli, the largest city in northern Lebanon. Despite being a school day, there are dozens of children walking up and down the ‘corniche’ with piles of CDs in their hands. Every minute or so they approach a passerby, sometimes a local, sometimes a tourist, to see if they are interested in buying a CD. Almost everyone says no.    Thirteen-year-old Bilal* has been working on the streets of Tripoli for the past two years. Originally from Aleppo, he would work 12 hours a day to bring in cash to support his family.

An estimated 10,000 have been killed and over two million forced to flee their homes since civil war erupted in South Sudan on this day in 2013. Despite an — albeit fragile — peace deal signed in August 2015, intense fighting continues to flare up on a regular basis ever since.

The months-long siege of eastern Aleppo ended in mid-December as Syrian government forces wrested control of areas that had been held by rebels. The intensifying bombing of these neighborhoods in the weeks before the ceasefire forced many residents to shelter underground, and tens of thousands to flee.

Ruth used to wake up every morning wondering what she would learn at school. But when Boko Haram came in with guns, her place of learning became a place of danger.

A group of fifteen women huddle around a stove in a brightly painted room in the Bekaa valley in the east of Lebanon. On the walls are messages of hope. Despite the plummeting temperatures, these women have made the journey to the International Rescue Committee’s women’s centre to participate in a somewhat unusual activity. They will join 'Hala' on her way to work, through the medium of a comic book.

In the face of ongoing violence — and the anti-refugee agendas pushed by some politicians — resilient Syrians are enduring the unimaginable and generous communities are taking them in. Here are 10 moments from 2016 (in no particular order) that give us a glimpse of the best of humanity.