Our distinguished panel will discuss how beleaguered nonprofits are struggling to deal with the increased challenges for desperate refugees and aid workers in the Middle East and elsewhere during the COVID-19 crisis.

Dr. Niveen Rizkalla will present findings from her timely research with an emphasis on Syrian refugees and aid workers in Lebanon. Amanda Lane will share the importance of small grass-roots organizations, like the Collateral Repair Project that she directs and which mostly works with Syrian, Iraqi and Kurdish refugees in Jordan. They will both discuss how dedicated NGOs, aid workers and volunteers are striving to nimbly solve basic human needs—physical and psycho-social—in the face of disease, violence, fear and other challenges.