1933

American branch of the European-based International Relief Association (IRA) founded at the suggestion of Albert Einstein to assist Germans suffering under Hitler. Refugees from Mussolini's Italy and Franco's Spain are later assisted.

1940

Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) formed to aid European refugees trapped in Vichy France. Over 2,000 political, cultural, union and academic leaders rescued in 13 months.

1942

IRA and ERC join forces under the name International Relief and Rescue Committee, later shortened to the International Rescue Committee.

1945

The IRC, at the end of World War II, initiates emergency relief programmes, establishes hospitals and children's centres and starts refugee resettlement efforts in Europe. With the descent of the Iron Curtain in 1946, the IRC initiates resettlement programme for East European refugees, which continues until the end of the Cold War.

1950

The IRC intensifies its aid in Europe with Project Berlin, providing food to the people of West Berlin amid increased Soviet oppression.

1951

Leo Cherne, a board member since 1946, elected IRC Chairman, a position he would hold for 40 years.

1954

In South Vietnam, the IRC begins a programme to aid one million refugees following defeat of the French by the North Vietnamese. The programme develops into a vast, long-range relief and resettlement effort for Indochinese refugees: Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians.

1956

The IRC starts resettlement and relief programmes for Hungarian refugees after the revolution is crushed by Soviet forces.

1960

An IRC resettlement programme begins for Cuban refugees fleeing the Castro dictatorship and for Haitian refugees escaping the Duvalier regime.

1962

IRC operations are extended to Africa when 200,000 Angolans flee to Zaire; IRC also begins aid to Chinese fleeing to Hong Kong from the mainland.

1971

IRC provides extensive support, especially medical, health, child care and schooling, for the 10 million East Pakistani refugees fleeing to India. The work continues as the refugees return to their new nation of Bangladesh.

IRC takes a leading role in the resettlement of Asian nationals persecuted and expelled from Uganda by dictator Idi Amin.

1975

Chilean refugees are assisted by the IRC in their efforts to win asylum in the U.S.; IRC also helps refugees from Uruguay, Paraguay and Guatemala.

1976

The IRC begins emergency relief, medical, educational and self-help programmes for Indochinese refugees fleeing to Thailand, later to include thousands from Burma.

1977

IRC President Leo Cherne organises the Citizens Commission on Indochinese Refugees, comprising a cross-section of America's political, cultural and religious leaders. The Commission conducted many trips to Southeast Asia and for years served as the leading advocate of people fleeing from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

1979

Departure of refugees from the Soviet Union - mostly dissidents, Armenians, Jews reaches a peak of 53,000. Thousands are resettled by IRC.

1980

In 1980, IRC starts emergency programmes in the Sudan for flood of refugees fleeing Ethiopia. The work extends to Somalia in 1981.

IRC launches emergency relief programmes for Afghan refugees fleeing to Pakistan, leading to long-term health, education, self-reliance and job training programmes.

1982

IRC assists Palestinian and Lebanese refugees uprooted by the war in Lebanon.

1984

In El Salvador, the IRC initiates a broad range of health, child care and community development projects for displaced victims of civil war.

Spanish Refugee Aid becomes a division of the IRC, serving the survivors of the Spanish Civil War in France.

1987

The IRC begins healthcare programme in Poland, in partnership with the Polish trade union movement, Solidarity.

The IRC responds to refugee flow of Mozambicans to Malawi - soon to exceed one million - by initiating relief programmes. Eight years later, the IRC assists the returning refugees inside Mozambique.

1988

The IRC starts community rehabilitation activities in Afghanistan for tens of thousands of Afghan refugees returning home from Pakistan.

1989

Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children established by the IRC to serve the rights and interests of 80% of the world's refugees: women and children.

1991

After the first Gulf War, the IRC comes to the aid of hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees who flee to the mountains of Turkey to escape Saddam Hussein's terror.

The IRC also launches emergency health and healthcare training programmes in Sudan serving some 250,000 displaced people in Bhar El Ghazal and the Upper Nile states.

1992

The IRC begins work in the former Yugoslavia dealing initially with the consequences of the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The IRC later launches comprehensive community rehabilitation programmes in Bosnia.

1994

The IRC sets up emergency programmes to aid Rwandan refugees pouring into Tanzania and the former Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo) as a result of the genocide and ensuing civil war.

1995

The IRC moves into Somaliland, providing agriculture extension training and small business credit programmes for refugees returning from camps in Ethiopia.

1996

In Burundi, the IRC begins emergency aid to displaced people in six of the country's 16 provinces.

1997

The IRC begins operating inside Kosovo, eventually providing aid to help meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of Kosovar refugees fleeing to Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia.

The IRC opens an office in the United Kingdom to support the IRC’s global interventions and to add a new voice to the sometimes disquieting debates on refugees and asylum in the UK.

1998

IRC healthcare and public health services are established in Congo-Brazzaville.

1999

Emergency operations are launched for the East Timorese following a rampage by Indonesian militia groups that leaves tens of thousands of people homeless.

2000

In Ingushetia, the IRC launches emergency shelter, sanitation and education for Chechen refugees fleeing fighting between Russian forces and separatist Chechen rebels.

2002

In 2002, the IRC participates in the demobilisation of 1,200 child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

IRC activities broaden inside Afghanistan, with emergency aid programmes to one million displaced people, and reconstruction and rehabilitation for more than two million refugees returning from Pakistan and Iran.

The IRC undertakes an advocacy campaign to reverse the U.S. government's slowdown in refugee resettlement approval following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

2003

The IRC responds to the war in Iraq with water and sanitation, and healthcare support.

Programmes expand in West Africa, with continued war in Liberia and new fighting in Ivory Coast, and growing populations of refugees and displaced persons in those countries and in Guinea and Sierra Leone. Programmes include health, education, family reunification and gender-based violence prevention.

The IRC’s Mortality Survey for the Democratic Republic of Congo estimates that 3.9 million people have died in the DRC since the conflict began in 1998, making it the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

2004

IRC mobile relief teams, with specialists in health, water and sanitation, and child protection, deliver emergency services and supplies to the province of Aceh, the region closest to the epicenter of the devastating 26 December 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia.

In Sudan, the IRC begins providing health, water and sanitation, hygiene awareness, shelter, flood and drought relief, food security and economic revitalisation assistance to nearly 100 communities in the Darfur region.

The IRC starts providing essential services to Sudanese refugees in neighboring Chad.

2005

Long-term aid by the IRC continues to help tsunami-affected communities in Indonesia by rehabilitating healthcare infrastructure, providing psychosocial support to children and families, and offering community regeneration.

Following a devastating earthquake in Pakistan, IRC emergency teams respond to help 250,000 people and treat thousands of the sick and injured.

2006

Working with local groups, the IRC provided urgent assistance to thousands of people affected by fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

2007

The IRC launches campaign to aid and support over four million displaced and uprooted Iraqis.

2008

2008 marks the 75th anniversary of the International Rescue Committee. Responding to conflict in Georgia and disaster in Myanmar (Burma), as well as to continued unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Middle East and Darfur, the IRC's work is as vital today as it was at its very beginnings.