When one of the strongest storms in recorded history slammed the Philippines in 2013, more than 6,000 people lost their lives and 90 percent of homes in the hardest hit areas were damaged or destroyed.

Shortly after a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011, the International Rescue Committee responded by providing technical and financial support to three Japanese aid groups—the Association for Aid and Relief Japan (AAR), Japan Emergency NGO (JEN) and Peace Winds Japan.

The word ‘refugee’ brings to mind rows of white tents spread over remote and dusty plains – today has made me think differently. I am in Nairobi, home to tens of thousands of refugees trying to survive and build a new life in Kenya’s sprawling capital. Eastleigh, a neighbourhood on the east side of the city, is home to an estimated 120,000 refugees. The majority are Somalis who have fled conflict and drought in their own country. Rather than head for refugee camps, increasingly they seek the anonymity and opportunities for self-reliance offered by the city. They are not alone in this choice – according to the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee body, more than half of the world’s refugees now live in urban settings.

Learn how Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee are changing the lives of young refugees and displaced children across the Middle East.

The International Rescue Committee spoke to Syrian men and women who have found temporary safety in Idlib—but worry they will be uprooted once more—about the places they escaped, and what they hope the future holds.

For the first time ever, the world is facing the very real possibility of not one, but four simultaneous famines—in South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen. Thirty million people are facing starvation and living on the brink of what could become the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time.

When one of the strongest storms in recorded history slammed the Philippines in 2013, more than 6,000 people lost their lives and 90 percent of homes in the hardest hit areas were damaged or destroyed.

Since 2014, economic upheaval and political turmoil in Venezuela have caused 1.5 million people to flee the country, and this number is likely to rise as the crisis intensifies. Escaping devastating shortages, unemployment and soaring inflation, these refugees turn often to their country's closest neighbor, Colombia.