Cisco Celebrates Compassion and Courage this World Refugee Day

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 2, 2023 / Cisco Systems Inc.:

June 20 was World Refugee Day. Launched in 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly, it is celebrated around the world to raise awareness about the plight of refugees and celebrate their strength and courage. Cisco has a long history of supporting refugees around the world, and we do so by tapping into our people, our technology, and our financial resources. This includes launching humanitarian relief campaigns where Cisco employees can make donations which the Cisco Foundation matches 1:1.

Cisco donates its technology to provide connectivity for refugee communities so they can connect with their loved ones and avail themselves of local resources and support services. The technology donations also facilitate coordination, collaboration, and communication among humanitarian relief agencies so they can deliver services with efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and security.

Cisco complements all of this with financial resources to invest in the work and tech-enabled solutions developed and delivered by its non-governmental organization (NGO) partners to provide equitable access to critical information and resources to people in need, whether they have been displaced due to war, other conflict, climate events, etc. And, Cisco invests along a continuum, providing humanitarian relief in the immediate aftermath of a crisis, as well as longer term investments in education and economic empowerment initiatives to foster long-term stability, security, and resilience.

This year's theme is Compassion, and as we reflect on the numerous partnerships that Cisco and the Cisco Foundation have in relation to helping refugees in crisis, we want to highlight just a few of our incredible NGO partners and their life-changing work.

HIAS

HIAS stands for a world in which refugees find welcome, safety, and opportunity. The world's oldest refugee agency, HIAS brings over 100 years of experience protecting displaced persons-including women and children, and ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities-whose lives are in danger for being who they are. HIAS currently works in 22 countries across the United States, Latin America, Africa, Eurasia, and the Middle East to help refugees rebuild their lives in safety, and advocates to ensure that all displaced people are treated with dignity. In 2022 alone, HIAS reached over 1.35 million people directly and indirectly through their signature approach programs including legal protection, economic inclusion, gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response and community-based mental health and psychosocial services. The global refugee crisis shows no signs of abating as war, violence, and climate change continue to force people to flee their homes. Across its programs, HIAS will continue to protect the safety, health, and rights of vulnerable individuals and support their ongoing recovery through integrated programming focused on mental health support, prevention, and response to gender-based violence, economic inclusion, and legal protection. Learn more about HIAS at https://hias.org.