WhoSay: What first inspired you to get involved with the International Rescue Committee?
Piper Perabo: I wanted educate myself, and understand what’s going on in areas of conflict beyond just reading the news at home. I have a cousin who works for the IRC. He told me they were founded at the request of Albert Einstein, and they respond to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, give assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster, and help people to survive and rebuild their lives.
WhoSay: Do you have any other experiences that you didn’t include in your article that really affected you personally?
Piper: We flew into Lebanon from Turkey, two days after the Israeli ground invasion into Gaza this July. As we came up to passport control, a man in military uniform said, “Hello, my friends, where are you coming from?” We said Istanbul. He glanced at our U.S. passports and said, “Have you ever been to Israel?” We said no, which was true; although “Covert Affairs” had discussed filming in Israel a few years prior, we never went. “May I see your passports,” the uniformed man asked. He then looked at every single stamp in each passport, I can only imagine to make sure we were telling the truth. This was all before passport control. I have good friends who are Israeli, and to have to assure someone I have never stepped foot in a certain country, in order to be let into another, that was a new experience for me.
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New Q&A With Piper
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