If you’re struggling to remember positive news about 2024, you’re not alone. Here are 8 stories that inspired us this year and gave us hope for 2025.

Madeleine and her young daughter, Odette, had made a home in the Democratic Republic of Congo when their lives were changed forever.

Some 100 people are reported dead and hundreds more injured in a suspected chemical gas attack on Tuesday in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, in Syria’s northern Idlib province. Doctors at a hospital supported by the International Rescue Committee in the city of Idlib were able to save the lives of 10 people caught in the attack. 

Today, 65 million people have been forced to flee their homes. Next year, 1.19 million of those refugees will be in need of resettlement. Each one of those 1.19 million refugees are seeking a safe home and a brighter future for their family. Meet three resettled refugee families embarking on a new life in a new country.

On Sunday 25th October, an array of London’s biggest stars from film, theatre, music and television came together for ‘A Song for Syria’, a one off performance at St. Paul’s Covent Garden to raise money for Syrian refugees. The event raised over £4,500 for the two beneficiary charities; the International Rescue Committee and Hand in Hand for Syria.

“I call the children one by one to see what it is inside the box,” explains Amer,* an educator with the International Rescue Committee. “I explain to them that they will find the picture of a very important person inside the box, someone who set up his or her goals and achieved them.” Amer is one of IRC's educators who provide street and working children in Beirut, including Syrian refugees fleeing from war, with psychosocial support, recreational activities and basic literacy and numeracy classes. Educators facilitate a number of games, such as the mirror box, to help children improve confidence, creativity and thinking skills.