The Syrian civil war has created the biggest humanitarian crisis in our lifetime. More than 5 million people have been forced to leave behind family, possessions, school and work—basically their entire lives. But Syrians aren’t alone in fleeing violence and persecution. Global displacement is at an all-time high, and refugees from Somalia, Afghanistan, and other countries affected by conflict and violence are seeking sanctuary throughout the Middle East, Northern Africa, Europe and other parts of the world.

Since September 2015, we’ve been working with humanitarian organizations to respond to the refugee crisis. These organizations are experts in the field, and have told us where Google can fill a gap—with funding, technology or expertise. We’ve donated more than $20 million in Google.org grants to nonprofits, providing more than 800,000 refugees access to the internet, vital information and educational resources. On World Refugee Day, we want to share an update on a few of our ongoing initiatives.

From the start, our nonprofit grantees told us that connectivity and information are essential forms of aid. One of our early efforts was to help refugees and first responders in Greece get internet access. We provided a grant and a dozen Googler volunteers to NetHope, which has enabled them to install free Wi-Fi in 76 refugee camps. As a result, hundreds of thousands of refugees have been able to communicate with their loved ones through text and voice messages.

We learned from the International Rescue Committee that clear and timely information is critical in a time of crisis. To help nonprofits quickly disseminate trustworthy information, we helped build Refugee.Info with IRC and Mercy Corps. Featuring information about the asylum process, translation tools and maps, the platform has become a vital resource for refugees in Greece and the Balkans. With the assistance of a new $1 million Google.org grant and technical volunteers from Google, IRC is now expanding the app to serve refugees in the Middle East.

The refugee journey is not only dangerous, but also long and frustrating; it interrupts careers, educations and dreams indefinitely. So a big focus of our support is on nonprofits that provide refugees access to educational resources while they’re in camps and once they’ve been resettled. We awarded a grant of $3 million grant to Queen Rania Foundation to help develop an online platform that provides access to educational resources for Arabic-speaking students and teachers across the Middle East and North Africa. And in Germany, libraries and nonprofits like AsylPlus are using Chromebooks from Project Reconnect to offer language learning and job-placement programs to more than 150,000 refugees to help them integrate into their new communities.  

In addition to directly serving refugees, our work with nonprofits has aimed to provide the global community with authentic and credible information about the crisis. Last month, we partnered with UNHCR to release Searching for Syria, a website with the goal of helping people everywhere better understand the Syrian refugee crisis through Google Trends data, personal stories and the rich information from the the UNHCR. We're also shedding light on refugees' experiences, like Maher’s, who came to the U.S. from Iraq. And today, IRC and YouTube are sharing real refugees’ stories captured by some of our top creators around the world. 

The effects of the refugee crisis will be felt for years, and no single organization can solve it on its own—it requires a team effort. Nonprofits providing support and creating opportunities for communities affected by crises need our help now more than ever, and we’ll continue to support these heroes to help them make an even bigger impact.

The Syrian civil war has created the biggest humanitarian crisis in our lifetime. More than 5 million people have been forced to leave behind family, possessions, school and work—basically their entire lives. But Syrians aren’t alone in fleeing violence and persecution. Global displacement is at an all-time high, and refugees from Somalia, Afghanistan, and other countries affected by conflict and violence are seeking sanctuary throughout the Middle East, Northern Africa, Europe and other parts of the world.

Since September 2015, we’ve been working with humanitarian organizations to respond to the refugee crisis. These organizations are experts in the field, and have told us where Google can fill a gap—with funding, technology or expertise. We’ve donated more than $20 million in Google.org grants to nonprofits, providing more than 800,000 refugees access to the internet, vital information and educational resources. On World Refugee Day, we want to share an update on a few of our ongoing initiatives.

From the start, our nonprofit grantees told us that connectivity and information are essential forms of aid. One of our early efforts was to help refugees and first responders in Greece get internet access. We provided a grant and a dozen Googler volunteers to NetHope, which has enabled them to install free Wi-Fi in 76 refugee camps. As a result, hundreds of thousands of refugees have been able to communicate with their loved ones through text and voice messages.

We learned from the International Rescue Committee that clear and timely information is critical in a time of crisis. To help nonprofits quickly disseminate trustworthy information, we helped build Refugee.Info with IRC and Mercy Corps. Featuring information about the asylum process, translation tools and maps, the platform has become a vital resource for refugees in Greece and the Balkans. With the assistance of a new $1 million Google.org grant and technical volunteers from Google, IRC is now expanding the app to serve refugees in the Middle East.

The refugee journey is not only dangerous, but also long and frustrating; it interrupts careers, educations and dreams indefinitely. So a big focus of our support is on nonprofits that provide refugees access to educational resources while they’re in camps and once they’ve been resettled. We awarded a grant of $3 million grant to Queen Rania Foundation to help develop an online platform that provides access to educational resources for Arabic-speaking students and teachers across the Middle East and North Africa. And in Germany, libraries and nonprofits like AsylPlus are using Chromebooks from Project Reconnect to offer language learning and job-placement programs to more than 150,000 refugees to help them integrate into their new communities.  

In addition to directly serving refugees, our work with nonprofits has aimed to provide the global community with authentic and credible information about the crisis. Last month, we partnered with UNHCR to release Searching for Syria, a website with the goal of helping people everywhere better understand the Syrian refugee crisis through Google Trends data, personal stories and the rich information from the the UNHCR. We're also shedding light on refugees' experiences, like Maher’s, who came to the U.S. from Iraq. And today, IRC and YouTube are sharing real refugees’ stories captured by some of our top creators around the world. 

The effects of the refugee crisis will be felt for years, and no single organization can solve it on its own—it requires a team effort. Nonprofits providing support and creating opportunities for communities affected by crises need our help now more than ever, and we’ll continue to support these heroes to help them make an even bigger impact.

The park is not a big one. It’s a few thousand square-foot triangle in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, populated by a handful of trees and benches. Looking at it, you wouldn’t know that one night in June 1969, it hosted a crucial turning point in LGBTQ history. Across the street at the Stonewall Inn, a neighborhood gay bar, police broke down the door intending to haul the patrons off for a night in jail. Bar-goers resisted and a riot broke out in the park—it lasted several days and sparked what many recognize as the start of the modern day LGBTQ rights movement.

Google was founded on the idea that bringing more information to more people improves lives on a vast scale. The preservation of history is an essential way to make sure information lives on and reaches everyone. The Stonewall Riots were important to the ongoing road to civil rights for LGBT communities around the world — and their message is as resonant and necessary today as it was back then. To help preserve and amplify the story of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, Google.org is giving a $1 million grant to the LGBT Community Center of New York City.

Google.org has provided grants and funding to groups across the world that challenge bias and exclusion by helping to share the stories and history of marginalized groups, from the Equal Justice Initiative to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. We are glad to continue that work today with the support of organizations like the LGBT Center, who provide so much to their community.

Remembering the people who spoke out against injustice, who fought for the basic right to "be," is key to our universal quest for human rights. By remembering those who came before us, and all we have accomplished since, we ensure that their actions were not in vain. We hope that sharing these stories will help to empower and inspire us all to action.

The park is not a big one. It’s a few thousand square-foot triangle in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, populated by a handful of trees and benches. Looking at it, you wouldn’t know that one night in June 1969, it hosted a crucial turning point in LGBTQ history. Across the street at the Stonewall Inn, a neighborhood gay bar, police broke down the door intending to haul the patrons off for a night in jail. Bar-goers resisted and a riot broke out in the park—it lasted several days and sparked what many recognize as the start of the modern day LGBTQ rights movement.

Google was founded on the idea that bringing more information to more people improves lives on a vast scale. The preservation of history is an essential way to make sure information lives on and reaches everyone. The Stonewall Riots were important to the ongoing road to civil rights for LGBT communities around the world — and their message is as resonant and necessary today as it was back then. To help preserve and amplify the story of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, Google.org is giving a $1 million grant to the LGBT Community Center of New York City.

The Center will use this grant to continue its work with the National Park Service, extending the reach of Stonewall National Monument beyond its physical location. Ahead of 2019, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the uprising, the Center will record the stories of those who raised their voices at Stonewall and the many others who were inspired by their brave defiance. These are the stories of transgender women of color who fought back; of queer youth, many of whom were homeless, who bravely refused to be silenced; of the poorest of the LGBTQ community. Those stories will be built into a digital memorial experience available to anyone who visits the park—both in person and online. The funding will also support the building of a curriculum on LGBTQ civil rights to be used in classrooms nationwide.

Google.org has provided grants and funding to groups across the world that challenge bias and exclusion by helping to share the stories and history of marginalized groups, from the Equal Justice Initiative to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. We are glad to continue that work today with the support of organizations like the LGBT Center, who provide so much to their community.

Remembering the people who spoke out against injustice, who fought for the basic right to "be," is key to our universal quest for human rights. By remembering those who came before us, and all we have accomplished since, we ensure that their actions were not in vain. We hope that sharing these stories will help to empower and inspire us all to action.

Note: This post references sensitive subject matter pertaining to lynching in America. 

Growing up, Shirah Dedman always hated family tree projects. While other students could trace their roots as far back as the Mayflower, her story always stopped at her great-grandfather. At the age of 32, with the help of researchers at the Equal Justice Initiative, a Google.org grantee, Shirah learned the true story of her great-grandfather’s life—and death. Thomas Miles Sr., a black business owner, was lynched in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1912 for allegedly passing a note to a white woman. Fearing for their own lives, his family fled the South, and even changed the spelling of their last name—from Miles to Myles—to distance themselves from the tragedy. It would be decades before his story would come to light and his family could begin to make sense of their traumatic past.

These stories are a difficult part of American history. Thomas Miles Sr. was one of more than 4,000 African Americans lynched in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950. Recently, the Dedman/Myles family returned to the South 100 years after Thomas Miles Sr. was lynched there.

Today the Equal Justice Initiative, with support from Google, is shedding new light on this chapter in American history with Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror, an interactive experience that brings their groundbreaking research on this racial violence—and the personal stories behind it—online.

The Equal Justice Initiative is a nonprofit challenging racial injustice both in and out of the courtroom. The organization’s founder, Bryan Stevenson, believes that we cannot truly move forward as a nation until we confront this dark chapter from our past. Google is committed to making information universally accessible, so that everyone has the knowledge to better understand—and contribute to—a more just world. Together we share a commitment to creating a more inclusive society and leveraging data to fight inequities, which is why Google.org is proud to further increase our support for EJI, which began in 2016. 

Based on EJI’s original publication of the same name, Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror reveals both the scope of lynchings of African Americans between 1877 and 1950 and the profound way in which this era continues to shape our nation, particularly in our criminal justice system. Racial disparities continue to burden people of color; the criminal justice system is infected with racial bias; and a presumption of dangerousness and guilt has led to mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and police violence against people of color. If current trends continue, one of every three black boys born in America today will be imprisoned.

In addition to helping bring this essential history online, Google.org is also donating another $1 million to the Equal Justice Initiative to support their national memorial to lynching victims in Montgomery, Alabama. Opening in 2018, the memorial makes this history an undeniable part of the physical landscape, ushering the past into the present day. 

Note: This post references sensitive subject matter pertaining to lynching in America. 

Growing up, Shirah Dedman always hated family tree projects. While other students could trace their roots as far back as the Mayflower, her story always stopped at her great-grandfather. At the age of 32, with the help of researchers at the Equal Justice Initiative, a Google.org grantee, Shirah learned the true story of her great-grandfather’s life—and death. Thomas Miles Sr., a black business owner, was lynched in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1912 for allegedly passing a note to a white woman. Fearing for their own lives, his family fled the South, and even changed the spelling of their last name—from Miles to Myles—to distance themselves from the tragedy. It would be decades before his story would come to light and his family could begin to make sense of their traumatic past.

These stories are a difficult part of American history. Thomas Miles Sr. was one of more than 4,000 African Americans lynched in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950. Recently, the Dedman/Myles family returned to the South 100 years after Thomas Miles Sr. was lynched there.

Today the Equal Justice Initiative, with support from Google, is shedding new light on this chapter in American history with Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror, an interactive experience that brings their groundbreaking research on this racial violence—and the personal stories behind it—online.

The Equal Justice Initiative is a nonprofit challenging racial injustice both in and out of the courtroom. The organization’s founder, Bryan Stevenson, believes that we cannot truly move forward as a nation until we confront this dark chapter from our past. Google is committed to making information universally accessible, so that everyone has the knowledge to better understand—and contribute to—a more just world. Together we share a commitment to creating a more inclusive society and leveraging data to fight inequities, which is why Google.org is proud to further increase our support for EJI, which began in 2016. 

Based on EJI’s original publication of the same name, Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror reveals both the scope of lynchings of African Americans between 1877 and 1950 and the profound way in which this era continues to shape our nation, particularly in our criminal justice system. Racial disparities continue to burden people of color; the criminal justice system is infected with racial bias; and a presumption of dangerousness and guilt has led to mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and police violence against people of color. If current trends continue, one of every three black boys born in America today will be imprisoned.

In addition to helping bring this essential history online, Google.org is also donating another $1 million to the Equal Justice Initiative to support their national memorial to lynching victims in Montgomery, Alabama. Opening in 2018, the memorial makes this history an undeniable part of the physical landscape, ushering the past into the present day. 

Note: This post references sensitive subject matter pertaining to lynching in America. 

Growing up, Shirah Dedman always hated family tree projects. While other students could trace their roots as far back as the Mayflower, her story always stopped at her great-grandfather. At the age of 32, with the help of researchers at the Equal Justice Initiative, a Google.org grantee, Shirah learned the true story of her great-grandfather’s life—and death. Thomas Miles Sr., a black business owner, was lynched in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1912 for allegedly passing a note to a white woman. Fearing for their own lives, his family fled the South, and even changed the spelling of their last name—from Miles to Myles—to distance themselves from the tragedy. It would be decades before his story would come to light and his family could begin to make sense of their traumatic past.

These stories are a difficult part of American history. Thomas Miles Sr. was one of more than 4,000 African Americans lynched in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950. Recently, the Dedman/Myles family returned to the South 100 years after Thomas Miles Sr. was lynched there.

Today the Equal Justice Initiative, with support from Google, is shedding new light on this chapter in American history with Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror, an interactive experience that brings their groundbreaking research on this racial violence—and the personal stories behind it—online.

The Equal Justice Initiative is a nonprofit challenging racial injustice both in and out of the courtroom. The organization’s founder, Bryan Stevenson, believes that we cannot truly move forward as a nation until we confront this dark chapter from our past. Google is committed to making information universally accessible, so that everyone has the knowledge to better understand—and contribute to—a more just world. Together we share a commitment to creating a more inclusive society and leveraging data to fight inequities, which is why Google.org is proud to further increase our support for EJI, which began in 2016. 

Based on EJI’s original publication of the same name, Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror reveals both the scope of lynchings of African Americans between 1877 and 1950 and the profound way in which this era continues to shape our nation, particularly in our criminal justice system. Racial disparities continue to burden people of color; the criminal justice system is infected with racial bias; and a presumption of dangerousness and guilt has led to mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and police violence against people of color. If current trends continue, one of every three black boys born in America today will be imprisoned.

In addition to helping bring this essential history online, Google.org is also donating another $1 million to the Equal Justice Initiative to support their national memorial to lynching victims in Montgomery, Alabama. Opening in 2018, the memorial makes this history an undeniable part of the physical landscape, ushering the past into the present day.