humanitarian day

Sakima understands the importance of education and aspire to be a teacher. Sakima would like to teach third-grade children, she says, “because I understood everything the teacher taught us.”
Vincent Tremeau

A peek into African children's dreams

23 August 2016
SDGs

As part of this year’s commemoration of World Humanitarian Day (WHD), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs launched a photography exhibition in New York entitled “When I Grow Up.” By photographing African children aged six to 18 – whose young lives have already been beleaguered with hardships – photographer Vincent Tremeau documented their aspirations by capturing each dressed in the clothing of the adult they aspire to be.

Source: OCHA

World Humanitarian Day: UN honours sacrifices, celebrates spirit of aid workers

19 August 2014
The United Nations is marking World Humanitarian Day today by paying tribute to aid workers who carry out life-saving activities around the world, often in dangerous and difficult circumstances, while celebrating the spirit of humanitarian work worldwide.

Remembering victims of Baghdad bombing, UN marks first World Humanitarian Day

19 August 2009
United Nations officials and staff marked the first World Humanitarian Day today by paying tribute to the efforts of aid workers on the frontlines around the globe and by vowing to redouble the international community’s commitment to continue to assist people in need.
Women marching against sexual violence in the DRC (file photo)

FEATURE: Giving a voice to the victims of sexual and physical violence

19 August 2009
For nearly two and a half years, Roselidah Ondeko has been at work in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), helping local women find their voices to speak out about the epidemic of gender-based sexual and physical violence in the region.
UN humanitarian official Helena Mazarro travels by boat as she carries out her duties near Medellin, Colombia

FEATURE: The satisfaction from a lifetime of field work comes at a price

19 August 2009
In a small tent in the Angolan bush, four hours from the nearest major town, Helena Mazarro lived for almost two years. Food was tight in this remote corner in the summer of 1996, and Ms. Mazarro would fly off to Luanda, the capital, every two or three months and return a week later carrying a fraction of the food needed for the team of 15 humanitarian workers she was leading.
Aerial view of the vast destruction of the Indonesian coast caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
UN Photo/E. Schneider

FEATURE: Five years after tsunami, Indonesia better prepared for catastrophes

19 August 2009
The devastating tsunami which hit Indonesia so hard in December 2004 had two positive effects: it pushed the population to reflect and improve its mechanisms for managing catastrophes, and in the country’s Aceh province it led to the end of a conflict which had lasted 70 years.
Survivors of Cyclone Nargis in the aftermath of the disaster

FEATURE: Away from the frontlines, UN staff give a helping hand

19 August 2009
Humanitarian work typically takes place in conflict zones, or following natural disasters, or in remote areas where food is scarce and the need for immediate assistance is high. Grain sacks are hauled and distributed, life-saving vaccinations are given, and temporary shelters are found.