At the fifth annual Global Citizen Festival in New York City on September 26, global leaders made public commitments to support girls education, water sanitation and hygiene, refugee resettlement, and food security. The commitments announced at the Global Citizen Festival totaled nearly $1.6 billion and are set to positively affect 656 million lives.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, voiced sentiments held by Global Citizens in her speech on stage. Ambassador Power urged us to keep our common humanity with refugees in mind, and to be guided by compassion instead of fear as we work to offer these people new homes and new lives. Ambassador Power voiced a central question that the refugee crisis begs from the stage, stating, "We are hearing lots of scary stories about refugees, that they threaten our security, that they threaten our values. We hear calls to keep refugees out rather than to welcome them in. But imagine if you or I were in their shoes, how would we want the world to respond?"

Global Citizens have demonstrated just how much they care about the refugee crisis and the humane resettlement of refugees by sending thousands of tweets to Chancellor Merkel calling on her to leverage the G20 Summit to seriously discuss, and find global solutions for, the refugee crisis.