World Humanitarian Day: Celebrating the Men and Women Making a Difference

by Linda St.Cyr, Contributing Writer

August 19th marks World Humanitarian Day, a day where the men and women who have dedicated their lives to making it better are recognized for their services. As the World Food Programme states, “The event has special significance this year as the world grapples with a hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa.”

Humanitarian aid workers do not have an easy life. They make sacrifices, risk their lives, and tackle challenges that sometimes seem to be never-ending. The World Food Programme recognized four volunteers who have made incredible strides and impact on the world. Fethi Mohammad, Consolata Kwadi, Mick Eccles, and Challiss McDonough were marked by the WFP for their contributions to putting an end to hunger and navigating through extremely unfriendly conflict zones to feed those affected by famine.

There are many humanitarians that deserve credit for the work that they do. The life of a humanitarian is not always easy, safe, or satisfying. It takes special people to make the world a better place. Those people are strong in mind, body and spirit. 

I don’t have time to list all the humanitarians in the world, but here are some that I’d personally like to give credit to for World Humanitarian Day:

Wayne Elsey- Founder and CEO of Soles4Soles, Inc., an organization dedicated to providing shoes, clothes and hope to victims of abject suffering. Soles4Souls also supports micro-business efforts seeking to eradicate poverty.

Istvan Papp- U.N. Peacekeeper who was kidnapped while on a mission to oversee the disarmament program in Darfar in October 2010. He was chained to a tree in the Sudan for 3 months before finally being freed by his captors in January 2011. 

Sergio Vieira de Mello, a humanitarian worker for the U.N., and the 21 others who lost their lives during a hotel bombing in Baghdad in 2003. World Humanitarian Day was declared for August 19th by the UN General Assembly in 2008 to honor de Mello and the other volunteers who gave up their lives doing good works on that sad day in 2003. De Mello was awarded the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights posthumously in 2003.

Who did you recognize for World Humanitarian Day?


More by Linda:

Brazil’s “Zero Hunger” Program Offers Hope for the War on Poverty Worldwide

Child Poverty: America's Rising Crisis

Soles4Souls: Over 300 Million Children are Without Shoes

Yum! Brands, Inc. Fights Hunger in Africa with $1M