There Are Refugees Everywhere—and They Need Our Help. The International Rescue Committee Walks Us through 5 Ways to Make a Difference in a Refugee’s Life Today

Since Russia deployed its military into Ukraine on February 24, more than 2.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine. “That’s unprecedented,” Hope Arcuri tells The Sunday Paper, stating that this is the largest movement of people in the shortest amount of time since World War II.

Arcuri is the senior officer of global communications for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a global non-governmental humanitarian aid, relief, and development organization. When a crisis happens, IRC deploys its team members to help those affected survive and rebuild their lives.

Currently, IRC team members are in Poland assisting those fleeing Ukraine. Team members are also in more than 40 other countries and 20 US cities. We spoke to Arcuri to get a first-hand look at how IRC is helping Ukrainian and other refugees around the world and the ways we can each support a refugee today.

The Crisis in Ukraine: How IRC First Got Involved

In early February, the International Rescue Committee started getting reports of potential unrest in Ukraine. IRC team members had a prescience that if a situation did escalate, many people would flee to Poland—so the IRC went there. (Arcuri notes that IRC team members knew that region well after having a presence there to help those impacted by the 2021 Belarus-Poland conflict where thousands of people who’d fled crises in Afghanistan, Syria, and other nations had become trapped at the border between Poland and Belarus.)

IRC members started talking to partners in Poland, including nonprofits that had deep expertise and decades of presence in Poland. “We wanted to see where we could funnel funding, what growth grants we could do, and more,” explains Arcuri about how they aimed to help those impacted in Ukraine. “While all that scooping was going on, things escalated a lot more quickly than anyone anticipated. Luckily we were already there.”

What the IRC Is Seeing on the Ground

More than 2.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in mere weeks. “That number is climbing every day,” says Arcuri. This LIVE TRACKER from the IRC tracks how many refugees are fleeing and where they are going. As Arcuri says, “you can see that they’ve gone to Poland, Moldova, Romania, and are spreading across Europe.”

Arcuri emphasizes to The Sunday Paper the importance of Poland’s efforts. “Poland has really stepped up from the beginning in February and said that they would be willing to accept 1 million refugees—which is a huge number. But now Poland has received over 1 million in less than two weeks, so they are stretched for capacity while they are trying to be as welcoming and generous as possible.” The IRC is working with the government of Poland and its reception centers at different border points to offer those refugees a hot meal and other help as they head to where they’re going. “We’re trying to work with those centers,” continues Arcuri, “because there is a massive number of people coming in and they’re spread out for resources.”

The Crisis in Ukraine: Refugees’ Needs

Currently, the IRC has a team from their emergency unit in Poland. This team goes into a country within 48 hours of an emergency to assess the situation, Arcuri explains. IRC team members interview refugees about what will best help them “so we’re addressing their exact needs instead of imagining what they might need.”

The top needs have included blankets, clothing, warm meals, access to information about legal services, and psychosocial support. The IRC’s work to provide all of this “has been ongoing for a few weeks now,” says Arcuri. “We have started working through partners in Ukraine, as well.”

Ukraine and Beyond: How to Help Refugees Today

There are many things you can do to make an immediate impact, Arcuri tells us. Here are five:

1. Donate to rescue.org to help IRC’s Ukraine support. Here’s a breakdown of how your funds can help those impacted by the crisis:
   • $15 can provide basic hygiene supplies.
   • $18 can provide a child with a comfort kit.
   • $60 can provide an emergency kit for a family.
   • $80 can treat a child for malnutrition.
   • $108 can provide eight families with temporary shelter.
2. Donate to rescue.org to help IRC’s support in other countries. “There are still many other crises going on, ” says Arcuri. “It’s easy to focus just on Ukraine, but we still have ongoing strengths to help those in Syria (donate here) and Yemen (donate here). Afghanistan (donate here) is seeing the highest levels of malnutrition in reported history. And we’re dealing with compounding implications of climate change and hunger poverty.”
3. Write a letter to support refugees in the US. “There are several things that we’re asking the Biden Administration to do on the US side,” says Arcuri. One of those actions includes funding the IRC’s Resettlement Program in the United States, which would help refugees fleeing around the world to find a safe haven and rebuild their lives in America. Arcuri says writing a letter to the Biden Administration is a strong way to show support for this program.
4. Stay informed. “We just always like to encourage people to stay abreast of the news and to find reliable sources,” says Arcuri. Misinformation is rampant. Arcuri says by distilling the real facts and staying in the know of what is going on is a way to show support for refugees. She suggests doing the following:
   • Follow news sources that have a fact-checking team. “Most major US outlets that you think of, like CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, have entire teams dedicated to fact-checking,” says Arcuri. “So utilizing sources like that ensure that there have been rounds of ensuring that the stories they share have been well vetted.”
   • Avoid getting random information from social media sources and unvetted platforms. “It is different to see a tweet on your feed and go with that as a fact because oftentimes that hasn’t been through rigorous rounds of review fact-checking.”
5. Get active in the US. Because of the Afghanistan crisis and the Taliban takeovers in the fall of last year, many Afghan refugees have been recently resettled in the US. You can support their resilience and life-rebuilding by clicking on the IRC office nearest to you (there are 26 US offices—click on this map for find the one nearest you). This will list some of the immediate needs of Afghan refugees in this city and ways you can donate time or goods, or volunteer. “Based on your area, we lay out what the needs are specifically,” says Arcuri. “They might need toilet paper for homes for refugees, or you could make a run to a local grocery store that might have Afghan foods that they would like.” Arcuri continues: “That’s just about the Afghan crisis, but there’s also refugees from all over resettling in the US every year and those needs are ongoing as well. And that’s a huge part of the expertise of the IRC. There are tons of ways you can help volunteer and work with us.”