On August 19, Medical Teams joins with other humanitarian organizations to celebrate the commitment and courage of humanitarians on World Humanitarian Day.  Humanitarians dedicate their lives to serving others, often in challenging and dangerous contexts. It’s not an easy job, and it takes dedication and an enormous heart. That’s why we’re celebrating humanitarians as the heroes they are on World Humanitarian Day!

Read on to learn more about World Humanitarian Day and the humanitarian heroes we serve alongside at Medical Teams!

What is a humanitarian?

A humanitarian team member does a home visit for a mother with twins in Tanzania. Photo by Suhaila Stanthon Thawer.

When people dedicate their lives to helping alleviate human suffering, they’re known as humanitarians. They devote themselves to saving, improving, and protecting the lives of the most vulnerable people around the world. Generally, humanitarians serve people’s basic needs: for safety, for food, for health care, and for economic stability. Another important element of being a humanitarian is their commitment to neutrality, impartiality, and independence. It’s important that humanitarians and humanitarian organizations, like Medical Teams, work without subjectivity for political, economic, or military reasons. The focus is delivering life-saving assistance to those in need.

World Humanitarian Day

On August 19, 2003, an attack on a hotel in Baghdad, Iraq killed 22 humanitarian aid workers. That tragic attack highlighted how dangerous and difficult humanitarian aid work can be. It was also a stark reminder that humanitarian work is valuable and necessary. As our world faces more crises, we need people who run in to help rather than turn their backs on suffering.

Accordingly, the United Nations made August 19 World Humanitarian Day to celebrate the incredible work that humanitarians do around the world. Because of humanitarians, communities experiencing crises have people who rush to help them. The day is also a chance to remember the humanitarians who were attacked or died in the previous year. Sadly, 2023 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarians. More than 595 aid workers were attacked in 2023, and 280 were killed. We honor their sacrifice and mourn their passing by redoubling our humanitarian efforts.

This year’s theme for World Humanitarian Day is #ActForHumanity. It’s a theme that calls attention to the increasing attacks on humanitarian workers. Without the assurance of safety, it’s impossible for humanitarians to serve people well. Failing to #ActForHumanity hurts all of us.

Meet our humanitarian heroes

Every day, it’s a blessing to work alongside the humanitarian workers we know as heroes. The reality is that they work long hours in difficult settings to serve their communities. We celebrate them every day, not just on World Humanitarian Day.

As you’ll hear in the video below, for many of them, humanitarian work isn’t just a job.

It’s a calling.

The importance of humanitarian work

Humanitarian work is important because more people are suffering every day around the world. Natural disasters, disease, and conflict make it harder for people to live safely and well. The U.N. estimates that as of mid-2023, 362 million people around the world are in need of help, from food assistance to disaster relief.

Joan Nabulya is a nutritionist with Medical Teams in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in southwestern Uganda. We asked her recently what she thought would happen if there were no humanitarians.

“I think communities that have really been disrupted because of wars and other natural disasters — they want to be built again,” she says.

She went on to say that, without humanitarian aid work,

“There would be massive loss of lives, due to lack of basic necessities, such as lack of health care, shelter, and food. And I think it would slow our process of maintaining and achieving those sustainable development goals.”

Joan knows firsthand how important humanitarian aid work is. She’s right — without humanitarians, millions of people would suffer.

Celebrating World Humanitarian Day

A man in a humanitarian aid worker vest smiles for the camera.
Musa Kayima is a humanitarian and nutritionist in Kyaka Refugee Settlement. We’re celebrating people like him on World Humanitarian Day! Photo by Medical Teams International.

We know that the people we work alongside every day aren’t just humanitarians, they’re heroes. It takes a special person to stare into the face of suffering and know they can’t rest without doing something to help. Watch our humanitarians at work in this video.

We are grateful for them today and every day!

Note: Portions of this post have been updated. It originally posted on August 18, 2023.