Whether supporting refugees around the world or in the United States, the IRC’s goal is to help people uprooted by war, civil conflict, and persecution regain hope and rebuild their lives.  IRC staff and volunteers work closely with the people and communities they serve and include them in the decision-making that affects them.  In its international programs, 95 percent of IRC staff members are local rather than expatriate - an approach that provides jobs for refugees and residents from the host communities as well as strengthens the internal capacity of local institutions and organizations. 

Over the past six years, the IRC’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) has responded to a total of 56 humanitarian emergencies in 27 different countries.  Each of the interventions is individually tailored to save lives during the first several weeks of population movements when death and risk of disease are at their peak.  In these situations, people have lost everything that is familiar to them—home, friends, school, jobs, and frequently, members of their family.  Basic necessities such as food, shelter, clean water, and sanitation are no longer taken for granted as thousands die from preventable diseases caused by the lack of these necessities in the first weeks and months of a crisis.  In anticipation of emergency humanitarian crises, the IRC maintains an Emergency Response Team of experienced IRC staff members who are available for deployment to the site of a crisis on 72 hours notice.

After a conflict, when peace is restored and refugees can go home, the IRC helps the returnees repair the physical infrastructure of their communities, such as homes and schools, and rebuild their lives.  In many cases, however, emergencies become protracted conflicts leaving displaced people in desperate living situations.  In these circumstances, the IRC helps people cope with life in exile by enabling them to become self-sufficient, looking ahead to the day when they can return home or start life anew in a third country.