The Refuge Press Presents: The New Humanitarians—Who Are They and What Are They Doing?

Join the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs’ Refuge Press for an online book launch of The Migrant Diaries and a discussion about a new era of humanitarian action, featuring:

• Lynne Jones, child psychiatrist, aid worker, and author of The Migrant Diaries
• Housam Jackaly, Syrian refugee
• Dr. Alexander “Xand” van Tulleken, TV personality and former IIHA Helen Hamlyn fellow

In this hour-long virtual event, the speakers will discuss how the migrant crisis across Europe and Central America has generated new forms of humanitarian action in which refugees are taking a lead in helping themselves, assisted by volunteers working outside the old established structures of humanitarian assistance. This paradigm shift thus raises the questions: what are the implications, and what more can we do to address growing needs?

The Migrant Diaries combines direct testimony from children with a blazingly frank eyewitness account of what it means to provide mental health support on the front line of the migrant crisis across Europe and Central America, thus framing the event’s discussion of what this new humanitarianism means for both a person in flight and a volunteer trying to help.