In 2021 the IRC held cooking workshops for refugee and Greek women living on the Island of Lesvos in Greece. The workshops became a meeting point for different people, cultures, stories and memories. It promoted common experiences and mutual understanding through the universal language of food. The recipes shared, personal to the women who took part in the workshops, have been collected together as part of this cookbook. We hope you find a special recipe in this cookbook, from Afghanistan, Burundi, Cameroon, Greece, Iran, South Africa or Syria. They are all Recipes from Home. 

Meet fourteen-year-old Mariama. She’s been forced to flee her home in the Central African Republic because armed groups are threatening her village. She recently arrived with her family at a refugee camp in Chad. But that doesn’t mean she’s safe.

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.

Sixteen-year-old Wala’a is haunted by a terrifying memory—being assaulted by a soldier as she fled the war in Syria. One of more than 700,000 refugees now living in Jordan, she struggles to come to terms with the losses and hardships the conflict has inflicted on her and her family. But Wala’a has found a way to tell her story.

One year ago, European states closed their borders along the Western Balkan route and European Union (EU) leaders put in place the EU-Turkey Statement, a so-called temporary measure to stop irregular migration to Europe. Now EU leaders are declaring their approach a success. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and Oxfam are providing humanitarian response on the Greek islands and mainland, and as our experience clearly shows, the context on the ground is far more troubling and complex.