Like any teenager, 14-year-old Marah* has spent a lot of time grappling with that question. She’s sitting with a group of other girls inside a women and girls' centre in Lebanon’s Bekka Valley, listening intently to a discussion about building trusting relationships with parents. She’s here because she wants to learn how to better communicate with her father about something very important to her: She wants to go back to school.

Despite her young age, 11-year-old Farah* has gone through more traumatic experiences than most people should in a lifetime. In 2014, her family was forced to leave their village on the outskirts of Mosul and move to the east of the city, where ISIS was gaining control. A few months later, Farah’s father died. She then spent two years with her family living under the harsh rule of ISIS. She has never been to school. 

Alarming numbers of Ivorian women and girls have been raped, sexually assaulted, beaten and harassed by armed men at home or as they were fleeing violence and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) fears those who are reporting incidents represent a tiny fraction of the victims.

International aid has been in the news recently due to aid budgets being cut around the world. It’s a big, complicated topic and easy to feel confused, so here are 7 key facts and statistics to break it down.

Learn more about the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and how humanitarian organizations are delivering aid to affected communities.