The problem that AIM to AID is helping to solve is the struggles of refugees globally. Each year, the United States, where AIM to AID currently focuses much of its work, accepts tens of thousands of refugees, accepting 25,465 refugees in 2022 (Council on Foreign Relations). However, when these refugees arrive in the United States, they often struggle as a result of the cultural shift between their home countries and the United States. According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, 44% of refugees do not speak any English and the majority are not proficient English speakers; similarly, according to the UN High Commissioner on Refugees, only 1% of refugees receive higher education. As a result, many refugees experience difficulty in finding jobs, leading to further challenges in providing food and housing for their families and themselves. Along with that, rampant xenophobia leads to further struggles as refugees are targeted and sometimes assaulted for no reason. 

This problem is important as both of AIM to AID's founders, Zane and Ibraheem, have a connection to refugees, being second-generation and first-generation refugees respectively. As a result of our experiences, we founded AIM to AID as we believe it is important that refugees throughout the world should not have to escape conflict in their home countries only to face similar problems in their new homes. 

Our solution focuses on promoting youth civic engagement in communities to assist refugees. We focus our attention on getting high school students involved with assisting refugees. We have a team of 100 members spread across both the United States and worldwide in our 20 chapters, and they all work tirelessly to assist refugees. Through raising awareness using social media, creating educational content such as blogs or brochures, hosting a variety of events such as donation drives and English tutoring lessons, and working with other refugee service organizations, we have been able to assist hundreds of refugees. Within Houston, we have worked with the Refugee Services of Texas and the Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston to assist refugees and host events. Additionally, we focus on raising money for donations; using both GoFundMe and an online clothing store called Crescentwear, AIM to AID has raised over 30,000 dollars for refugees. We also have a software development team that developed the app Merhaba, providing refugees with easy access to an English translator, maps of local refugee centers, and a GPS for local religious centers. Merhaba has won the Congressional App Challenge and is currently being published and promoted on Apple and Google stores. 

The next three steps that our organization is focusing on is expanding the number of chapters we have, improving on both Crescentwear and Merhaba, and also hosting more events. Currently, we have chapters in states including Texas, California, Minnesota, and Michigan, and in countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sweden. We hope to continue forming new chapters in other states and thus provide as many refugees assistance as we can. We also hope that new team members can start initiatives similar to Crescentwear and Merhaba. For Crescentwear, we hope to continue promoting the store and partnering with more people; we have already partnered with the Rochester Public School District in Minnesota to raise awareness for refugees, and we hope to form more partnerships in the future. For Merhaba, we plan to add more features, including forums with basic information about the United States, cultural norms, and simple phrases that are used commonly. Finally, we hope to continue hosting more events, namely expanding our English tutoring classes and hosting a 5k run. We hope to expand English tutoring lessons nationwide and find new teaching methods; we are currently hosting in-person classes and have plans to create videos for students to review English on their own. We also hope to raise further awareness for refugees through a 5k run hosted in Houston. 

AIM to AID is formed from a number of children of refugees or refugees who fled war-torn countries, and are able to empathize with refugees whom we assist. We have fourteen chapters in the United States and seven chapters worldwide. The two founders, Zane and Ibraheem, are the child of Chinese and Iranian migrants and an Iraqi refugee respectively, and our officer team is made up of first-generation and second-generation migrants from around the world. Our global team is made up of residents of countries whose nations are facing refugee crises and want to help refugees as well. The members of the team primarily work within specific teams; for instance, many Houston chapter members work as part of the social media team or as volunteers with our partner organizations, while the Rochester chapter hosts both developers of the Merhaba app and the officers of the Crescentwear store. Aside from that, our members work to connect with refugees and find ways to assist them, whether that be through sending money, providing educational resources, or connecting them with other members of the team who can provide the assistance they need.