<It took Jason Lewis< 13 years to reach his goal -- to be the first person to circumnavigate the earth under his own steam, unaided by motors or sails.

Lewis, along with a college friend, voluntarily set off from the Greenwich Meridian Line in London in 1994 with the idea of cycling through Europe and crossing the Atlantic on an eight-meter pedal-powered boat named Moksha, or “liberation” in Sanskrit.

Refugees too walk relentlessly, night and day, regardless of the many hurdles they face. And yet they do it not out of their love of adventure -- but to survive. What do they have in common with Lewis?

Migrants share his extraordinary resilience and determination. And ICMC’s mission is to draw attention to the equally inspiring story of those parentless 11-year-olds who walk more than 30km, carrying their younger siblings, all the way from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to find food and protection from violence in a refugee settlement in Uganda.

Whether old or young, female or male, millions of refugees, internally displaced persons and migrant workers face the long and trying journey of migration to find a better life.

Lewis, with a top speed of three knots on sea, contrary currents, crocodile attacks, malaria, altitude sickness, incarceration, broken bones and many other setbacks, the "expedition became (him) and (he) became the expedition". But, also aided by people he met along the way, Jason did not give up. On 6 October 2007, he finally crossed the prime meridian again to become the first person to circle 360 degrees around the Earth using only his arms and legs.

ICMC believes it is its duty to do its share to provide humanitarian assistance to, and advocate for the protection of, the most vulnerable people on the move around the world, regardless of faith, nationality and ethnicity. It also makes sense.

Tens of thousands of refugee are resettled each year in different host countries around the world. Though they do not set records like Lewis did, migrants bring with them these valuable skills, directly applicable to the workplace as well as to the societies of the developed world.

Carlos Gutierrez, a Cuban immigrant to the United States of America, who survived the many challenges he encountered, is probably one of the migrants who did the most for his new home country.

Gutierrez epitomized the “American Dream”, having become Chief Executive Officer of multinational food manufacturing company Kellogg and President George W. Bush’s Commerce Secretary. He today continues to work to give migrants the opportunities he enjoyed. Remembering the advice he was given on the day he became a naturalized citizen:

“You have as much right to call yourself an American as anyone else who was born here,” Gutierrez recalls. “In fact, maybe you have even more of a right, because you chose to be an American. People who were born here didn’t have a choice.”

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Read Gutierrez's story here: Meet the GOP’s pro-immigration moneyman<