The United States-based nonprofit Miles4Migrants has flown over 43,000 migrants around the world to safety by pooling donated frequent flyer miles, credit card points, and cash.

Anti-war Russians fleeing abroad are getting married in Tbilisi, Georgia, where the marriage process is quick and easy. The couples get married for a variety of reasons, from ensuring they aren’t split up when they get to another country to simply wanting to anchor themselves together during uncertain times. All that’s needed are translations of their passports, an appointment at the Tbilisi House of Justice, and two witnesses.

In Nogales, Mexico, La Casa de Misericordia y de Todas Las Naciones provides food, shelter, and education to migrants while they work through the process of applying for asylum in the United States.

Shelters for Hope converted an abandoned motel into a migrant resource center called the Centro de Esperanza and provides meals, legal assistance, clothing, and shoes to families seeking asylum in the United States. Shelters for Hope sees between 150 to 200 people a day and can currently house about 30 people.

Community-based services provided by nonprofits — which include legal representation, housing, referrals for medical services, English language classes, and assistance with obtaining identity documents — have emerged as alternatives to ICE-based detention centers to help address the needs of immigrants and asylum seekers. Organizations like the Interfaith Community for Detained Immigrants provide food, housing, and case management support for asylum seekers, both individuals and entire families.

Asylum-seekers detained in Lithuanian refugee camps are exhibiting and selling their artwork with the support of Sienos Group, a volunteer-based initiative that coordinates showings and raises funds for art materials and supplies. Detainees have earned up to 100 euros for their pieces and say the ability to create and share their art while in the camps gives them a sense of purpose, empowers them to believe in their potential, and helps combat stigma against migrants in the country.

A decentralized group of Belarusian railway workers, hackers, and dissenting security forces have caused logistical chaos among Russian troops by disabling and disrupting railway links that connect Russia to Ukraine through Belarus. The underground group has targeted signal control cabinets needed to run trains, impeding the movement of Russian troops, disrupting their supply lines, and giving Ukrainian officials more time to formulate effective responses. The tactics are based on disruptions by Belarusians opposed to the Nazi occupation who blew up train lines and stations to disrupt German supplies.

The Sponsor Circle program mobilizes local community members to raise money and provide technical and cultural support to Afghan refugees resettling in the United States. One such refugee is Mohammad Agha Mohammadi, who has been able to enroll in benefits, get his driving learner's permit, and sign up for college courses with the help of his circle since arriving in Connecticut.

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, online home-sharing platforms such as Host a Sister provided an avenue for thousands of people around the world to offer temporary housing to refugees leaving the country. Host a Sister in particular is geared at women looking for a safe place to stay, making it a valuable resource for families who have had to flee while men have stayed behind to fight.

INeedHelpBy connects Belarusians living abroad with families currently experiencing government persecution and loss of income in the country. Donors have given over $1 million in emergency food aid directly to over 2,000 families in need. Donors pledge to buy at least two weeks of groceries and communicate directly with families to understand their needs. The organization verifies everyone’s identity, that they aren’t government infiltrators and that political repression led to loss of income for recipients. Connecting donors and recipients directly has also led to community building and emotional support.

A Doctors Without Boarders ship traverses international waters around Libya looking for asylum seekers to bring to safety in Europe before the Libyan Coast Guard finds them and takes them back.

Community buy-in for refugee resettlement is providing a legal avenue for those seeking asylum. Local groups across the UK have come together with the intention of helping refugees get settled. The groups raise money to be used by families to get through the first few months in addition to helping them open bank accounts, register for services, practice English, and more.

Spektrum, a self-organized LGBTQ+ migrant organization, provides a space of belonging to queer migrants, who often feel out of place and ill-served by traditional organizations that do not understand the violence and trauma they have endured. Spektrum has a non-hierarchical leadership structure and provides members with practical and relevant activities, like a bicycle repair workshop, which is important as many migrants rely on bikes as their main mode of transportation. The group was invited to help organize Cologne Pride and has advised the city on the lack of social services in some neighborhoods.

Tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees fleeing to Sudan to escape the war in their home region ended up in the border town of Hamdiyet, where a refugee camp and its supplies were quickly overwhelmed. So local residents, despite the pandemic, opened their homes to the refugees, housing and feeding at least 16,000 in the town of 6,000 over a two-month period. So far, COVID-19 has remained under control. Even though thousands of refugees have eventually transferred to camps elsewhere, hundreds more arrive every day.

Atheist former Muslims fleeing religious persecution in their home countries continue to face harassment and legal hurdles when they seek asylum in Europe. Säkulare Flüchtlingshilfe (Atheist Refugee Relief), with several branches in Germany and Austria, helps provide atheist refugees with safety, social and healthcare services, and help in applying for asylum. Many refugee-aid groups, and the European governments themselves, are not attuned to the special problems faced by such refugees. The group has helped more than 70 refugees from 15 countries.

When the coronavirus pandemic caused Germany to enter a period of lockdown, German authorities embarked on an effort to launch multilingual campaigns to make sure asylum seekers in the country had the information necessary to stay safe. The effort used podcasts, videocasts, and posters to disseminate information, and also relied on trusted community figures and NGOs to spread awareness, rather than the authories themselves.

A photo essay captures the resiliency of refugees in the infamously derelict camp on the Greek island of Lesvos. The residents of the camp have worked together to provide alternate meals, classes, and activities even amid dire circumstances.

In Wales, the African Community Centre which has previously offered culturally competent mental health care services to youth in the African community in the city, has expanded its services to "Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) young people from asylum backgrounds, ranging from three to 18 years old." The center focuses on using play therapy and one-to-one counselling, but amid the pandemic, they have also introduced online options.

Hand in Hand is a German initiative designed to match refugees looking to socialize with locals who are willing to welcome them to their new home. Social events were organized to bring people together based on interests and hobbies. Refugees who have benefitted from the opportunity to network with locals report a better grasp of the German language, a stronger network of friends, and some have even found work through their new network. The group’s success even garnered state funding to use toward event planning.

Women migrating to Spain from Sub-Saharan often fall prey to traffickers of sex workers and forced laborers, but gaps in aid to them exist because most migrants are young men traveling alone. Since 2018, the Ödos Project has provided shelter and counseling to women traveling with children, to give them a stable entry point in the country to lessen the risk of trafficking. The young women at Ödos often come with histories of gender-based discrimination and violence in their home countries, typically Ivory Coast and Guinea Conakry. Workshops include how to seek asylum.

Five years after Germany sparked controversy with a welcoming message to the flood of refugees applying for asylum, more than half of those 1.7 million refugees have work and pay taxes, their youth show strong signs of belonging to their German communities, and more than 10,000 have mastered the language enough to enroll in German universities. Refuting anti-immigrant skeptics meant overcoming, or enduring, enormous social and economic challenges. Despite many bumps, the policy now appears to have avoided the nightmare scenarios foreseen by critics, such as inviting even more refugees.

Despite its own troubled economy, Costa Rica has embraced a large influx of Nicaraguan refugees out of a recognition that immigration is an economic boon. The absorption of more than 28,000 migrants in one year, in a country of only 5 million people, has been aided by Costa Rica's existing population of Nicaraguans who fled earlier rounds of political and economic upheaval in their country. Those earlier migrants formed a network of aid organizations providing new arrivals with basic necessities, educational opportunity, connection to social services, and mental health support groups.

To continue serving tens of thousands of refugees stuck at the U.S.-Mexico border during the pandemic, shelters have collaborated on an improvised system to deliver food aid, emergency hotel accommodations, and legal aid via videoconferencing. The border buildup of recent months, a product of the “Remain in Mexico” asylum policy, became a far more complicated humanitarian mission thanks to COVID-19. After completely shutting down, some shelters are cautiously reopening with new protocols to serve a more socially-distanced clientele.

To tell the stories of victims of forced displacement, property destruction, and occupation in South Sudan, a team of journalists devised a phone survey to gauge the extent of the problem. By surveying hard-to-reach people in refugee camps, one of many barriers to traditional reporting due to the government's repressive tactics, the reporters pinpointed areas where people had been forced off their land, many by government soldiers. The survey was recorded in six languages and was made statistically valid by consulting outside experts and transparently disclosing its limitations.

One newsroom in Berlin is giving exiled journalists a chance to not only continue practicing journalism but to do so in their native language. With so many journalists forced to start careers anew, Alma Magazine is tapping into the rich skill set of many refugees who have arrived in Berlin over the past few years to cover their own communities.