1979
Sue Morton, an American living in Asia, witnesses the push-back of 40,000 Cambodian refugees on the Thai border. Sue decides to create Refugees International as a "global voice for the world's dispossessed."

1979
Sue and a few volunteers and refugees are standing vigilant at the White House to ask the U.S. to protect Indochinese refugees. President Jimmy Carter walks out of the White House and announces that he will order the U.S. Navy to rescue the "boat people" at sea. "I cannot let your people die," he says.

1980s
RI volunteers play a pivotal role in stimulating new guidelines by the U.S. and Thai governments to facilitate protection for refugees and more equitable screening for their resettlement.

1985
RI rents its first "home," a supply closet of the Indochina Resource Action Center, and hires its first employee, Executive Director Susan Goodwillie. Bill Clarke becomes RI's Board Chair.

1986
RI reorganizes, plans for the future, moves into adequate office space, expands its advocacy for Southeastern Asian refugees -- and almost goes broke. During the next four years, RI is often out of money, but the commitment to refugees never wavers.

1987
RI receives the Volunteer Action Award from President Reagan for inspiring volunteerism in communities across the United States.

1990
Lionel Rosenblatt becomes President of Refugees International. RI expands its work outside Southeast Asia and undertakes missions to Guinea, on behalf of Liberian refugees, and the Iraq-Jordan border to call for the rescue of 150,000 Kuwaiti and other "hostages of the desert."

1991
RI is first on the ground on the Iraq-Turkey border to spark world attention to the plight of Kurds fleeing Saddam Hussein. Our television appearances and full-page newspaper ads help stimulate a massive and unprecedented U.S. military rescue mission for the Kurds.

1992-1993
Philanthropist George Soros asks RI to advise on the expenditure of $50 million in aid for emergency relief to besieged Sarajevo. Working in Sarajevo, under fire, with consultant Fred Cuny, RI recommends financing of innovative programs to rebuild Sarajevo's water, gas, and electric utilities.

1994
RI reports on the exodus of nearly 2 million Rwandans to Zaire (now Congo and Tanzania), the most rapid refugee flow in history. RI successfully advocates in Washington for a U.S. military rescue operation to save thousands of lives.

1995
Lionel Rosenblatt leads a search for missing humanitarian and former RI Associate, Fred Cuny, in war-torn Chechnya. Tragically, we learn that Fred has been killed. RI is a co-founder of the Burundi Policy Forum, now the Great Lakes Policy Forum, an informal organization which meets monthly to consider and recommend action on humanitarian issues in the embattled Great Lakes region of Africa.

1996-1997
RI takes up the cause of several hundred thousand Rwandan refugees who have fled to the forests of eastern Congo. We unsuccessfully advocate for a military rescue mission for the "Lost Refugees," but our efforts do result in emergency aid reaching the refugees and some are repatriated. The fate of most, however, is still unknown. Bill Clarke retires and is replaced by Richard Holbrooke as RI Chair.

1997
Bulgaria is suffering from a financial crisis. RI stimulates food aid for Bulgaria and designs a very successful school feeding program for more than 150,000 poor children. RI expands its programs to help the most vulnerable people in Cambodia: returned refugees, landmine victims, homeless and landless families, female headed households, and ethnic minorities.

1998
RI publicizes the atrocities, including mutilations, committed by rebel forces in Sierra Leone. RI's photos and interviews with the victims are published by The New York Times and other major media. Our reports stimulate international attention for a nearly forgotten conflict and its victims. RI is on the scene in Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro to give an early warning of the Kosovo crisis and to call for a credible threat of NATO military action to halt Serbian depredations. NATO finally acts in Spring 1999 after nearly a million Kosovars have been displaced.

1999
Board members David and Penny McCall and European Representative Yvette Pierpaoli are killed in an automobile accident in Albania in April. Richard Holbrooke leaves the RI Chair to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. AOL Founder James V. Kimsey is elected Chair. After many years of a nomadic existence, RI purchases an office building as a permanent headquarters. In another measure of growth, RI undertakes 23 field missions to 17 countries in 1999, the most productive year in our history.

2000
RI identifies six new humanitarian priorities for the new century to expand the scope of our advocacy. Our new priorities are (1) creation of a standing rapid reaction peacekeeping force; (2) greater attention to internally-displaced persons; (3) refugee women's issues; (4) child soldiers; (5) the relief to development gap; and (6) building local capacity. RI is on the ground at the conclusion of the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Our reports are the first to inform the international community that 1.5 million Eritreans are displaced and in desperate need of food, shelter and other aid. Our follow up advocacy in Washington stimulates increased and accelerated aid to save threatened Eritreans.

2001
After eleven years of successful leadership, Lionel Rosenblatt turns over RI's presidency to Ken Bacon, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and Pentagon Spokesman.  RI is a finalist for the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, one of the largest and most prestigious humanitarian awards, and WORTH Magazine names RI one of America's 100 best charities.  RI's experience in Afghanistan pays off after the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States. Our early on-the-scene reporting, op-eds, and media interviews highlight the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and help generate a $320 million aid package from the U.S.  Ken Bacon becomes Co-chair of the Partnership for Effective Peace Operations (PEP), a Washington, D.C. based working group that supports improved UN peace operations capacity.

2002
RI leads on issues related to the humanitarian preparations for the war in Iraq, acting with peer organizations to prompt the U.S. to make a $200 million cash contribution to the UN World Food Program for immediate purchase of emergency food supplies in the region. RI advocates a central UN role and better coordination in the humanitarian aid and reconstruction effort that will follow a conflict in Iraq.  RI conducts four first-time regional assessments to address problems of refugee or internally displaced people in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Uganda, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

2003
RI rose to the challenge of Iraq by providing invaluable and consistent leadership to the American NGO community. RI was effective at getting our message heard, both at high levels of the Administration and to the public through continuous media outreach. In 2003 RI conducted a mision to Angola, after which RI advocated with the World Bank to modify its proposed Demobilization and Reintegration Program so that abducted girls and UNITA "wives," women who had been forced to join UNITA soldiers as spouses, would also be given support. The impact of this successful effort is an additional 300,000 women directly benefiting from financial support and vocational training. Later that year RI returned to northern Uganda, found an underreported humanitarian emergency, and advocated with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and UNICEF to increase and improve their response. After RI advocacy, the UN pledged to triple their humanitarian assistance.