The WRC has worked tirelessly for more than 20 years to ensure that reproductive health care services are in place for women and girls displaced by crisis. Huge progress has been made over the past two decades, as we have worked to bring awareness to this issue and advocate for change. Yet more remains to be done in conflict and post-conflict situations where there are no health facilities or where they are too far or too challenging to reach.

Our three-year project with partners on the Thai-Burma border enabled community health workers to care for sexual violence survivors, and resulted in an innovative model of health care in 2012. We trained members of the displaced community to provide appropriate

and confidential medical attention and post-trauma support to women and girls who have experienced sexual violence. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) plans to pilot our cutting-edge community health worker model in Somalia and South Sudan.

This endeavor represents a promising beginning in bringing reproductive health care one step closer to the community in places where access to health services is challenging.

In addition, we are working with UNICEF to develop a training tool to help community health workers care for survivors in conflict settings globally.

Read more about our work on sexual and reproductive health here.

Women and girls uprooted by war and natural disaster face high risk of sexual violence. They need access to economic opportunities to provide for themselves and their families; however, at times, earning a living can heighten women's risks of exploitation and abuse. There is a need to mitigate the risk of violence in these emerging economic programs for women and girls and develop ways to enable them to work safely.

The WRC has been researching the links between violence and livelihoods as well as strategies for helping communities to empower and protect women and adolescent girls.

In 2012, we developed tools for fieldworkers, conducted trainings globally and designed an e-learning course in order to reach those unable to come to the trainings.

Our safety mapping tool and animated video help fieldworkers identify ways to reduce women and girls' risk of physical violence and develop protection strategies to enable them to live and work safely. We concluded a series of 10 global trainings on mitigating risks of sexual violence, which reached 350 practitioners from over 100 organizations working around the world. And finally, over 200 humanitarian practitioners have completed our online learning module.

Read more about our livelihoods work here.

Displaced women and girls often risk physical abuse and sexual assault when they go out to collect the firewood they need to prepare meals for their families. The WRC led the Inter-agency Standing Committee's Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy (SAFE) Task Force, which developed guidance to address the need for safe cooking fuel in humanitarian settings. Policymakers and practitioners in crisis settings around the world now use this guidance. Yet life-threatening situations still exist wherever displaced women and girls are unable to safely access the fuel needed to cook for their families.

Somalia, still suffering from decades of civil war, experienced increased levels of famine and drought in 2012, which drove displaced women and girls into remote areas in search of firewood. Recognizing this life-threatening

situation, the WRC persuaded and worked with our operational partners across the Horn of Africa to provide fuel-efficient stoves to counter the risks of women and girls being assaulted while collecting firewood.

As an outcome of this work, UNICEF and the humanitarian agency Relief International are supporting two projects providing more than 16,000 fuel-efficient stoves to displaced girls and women in Mogadishu, Somalia. We are also conducting a pilot project in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee, to provide displaced families with new Envirofit stoves. These stoves use less firewood than traditional stoves, decreasing the number of times women and girls must venture into unsafe areas.

Read more about our Fuel and Firewood Initiative here.

Refugees with disabilities are often overlooked, neglected and excluded from humanitarian programs and services. Following our breakthrough research report and the launch of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR's) guidance on refugees with disabilities, we continually advocate for changes in humanitarian practice to promote increased access and inclusion for this population.

In 2012, in partnership with UNHCR, we held consultations with 400 refugees with disabilities and conducted training and action planning workshops for UNHCR country offices, NGO partners and disability organizations in Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ethiopia and the Philippines.

Persons with disabilities played a central role in our workshops. They demonstrated their skills and capacities and shared their program ideas with 250 humanitarian staff, who are now better equipped to include the estimated 80,000 persons with disabilities across the five pilot countries in their programs and services. The WRC is now conducting assessments in Ethiopia and Nepal to measure the impact of these trainings on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian programs and services, and enable us to make recommendations on further policy changes to the UNHCR.

Read more about our disabilities work here.

Detention is too often used as a response to an increased influx of asylum seekers and migrants in the United States. Migrants can be held in detention for years with little or no access to critical psychological, legal and medical services. The WRC has been at the forefront in policy and legislative reform for migrants seeking protection, advocating for stronger transparency, oversight, accountability and alternatives to detention.

In 2012, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced a new policy for migrants in detention, commonly referred to as the "Visitation Directive." This progressive policy provides access for any organization that wishes to interview detainees without pre-authorized approval.

Further, it enables organizations to monitor conditions to determine facility compliance with national standards.

The WRC's sustained advocacy was critical in bringing about this major policy change. Prior to the "Visitation Directive," the WRC was one of very few NGOs granted access to the detainee population. Our follow-up with local facilities and ICE after visiting detention centers has often led to concrete changes in conditions for detainees. This new policy multiplies that impact because any organization can now monitor or speak with detainees. It strengthens oversight at both a national and local level and helps improve conditions for detained migrants.

Read more about our Migrant Rights and Justice work here.