1939: Rev. Waitstill and Martha Sharp travel to Europe on a cloak-and-dagger rescue mission to help refugees escape Nazi persecution. 

1940: The Unitarian Service Committee is established to continue and formalize these rescue efforts. 

1947: The Texas Migrant Workers Project is founded to support childcare, education, and food for communities facing exploitation.

1977: UUSC testifies before a Congressional committee about human rights violations in El Salvador. A year later, UUSC sponsors its first Congressional fact-finding tour of the country.

1984: Famine in Ethiopia spurs UUSC to appeal for emergency funds long before the story reaches U.S. television.

1992: UUSC celebrates the signing of peace accords – marking the end of a 10-year civil war in El Salvador – after organizing more than 20 congressional delegations to the war-torn area.

1994: UUSC sends emergency medical equipment to Rwanda and begins a long-term relationship with grassroots groups working to bring peace to the region.

2010: UUSC begins a decade long response to the earthquake in Haiti, supporting local organizations to provide immediate aid and advance long-term recovery.

2012: After six years of effort, UUSC is integral in getting international mining giant Goldcorp to commit $27 million to reclamation for a gold mine that contaminated the water supply of Indigenous populations in Guatemala.

2014: UUSC begins work to oppose immigration detention in the United States, helping women in detention adequately access their legal rights and find the support they need.

2018: UUSC participates in a delegation of faith leaders to support Honduran human rights defenders mobilizing against the fraudulent November 2017 presidential elections.

2020: UUSC and partners file first-of-its-kind complaint to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, documenting the U.S. government’s systematic violation of the rights of Tribal Nations displaced by climate change.

2021: UUSC is one of the only international organizations able to get aid into Burma (Myanmar) following the 2021 military coup d’état.

2022: UUSC launches an emergency relief effort to support people fleeing Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.