It was 10 years ago today that the United Nations headquarters was bombed in Baghdad, Iraq, resulting in the deaths of 22 humanitarian workers. Since that time, August 19th has been designated as World Humanitarian Day where we stop and recognize those that sacrifice their time, and sometimes their lives, to make a difference in the world.
The theme of this year’s campaign is all about asking what the world needs more of.
“Every year on August 19th we mark World Humanitarian Day in honour of aid workers, who have lost their lives in the line of duty. We commemorate their sacrifice and reaffirm our commitment to the lifesaving work that humanitarians carry out around the world every day, often in difficult and dangerous circumstances, where others cannot or do not want to go. This year our World Humanitarian Day campaign is calling on people to answer a question: ‘What do you think the world needs more of?’”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
In honor of this day, we’re sharing the story of how one Johnson & Johnson engineer gained perspective on her daughter’s adoption from Azerbaijan by visiting Ethiopia and seeing the work that’s done every day to make better lives for children like her daughter.
“Seven years ago, I brought my daughter home from the orphanage, and my life was dramatically changed. But it wasn’t until a recent trip to Yetebon, Ethiopia that I realized just how dramatically I had changed hers.
My daughter is originally from Azerbaijan, part of Eurasia, and even though it is many miles away, I imagine the challenges she might have faced would have been similar. In Yetebon, most households earn less than $300 per year, 78 percent of families are without access to clean drinking water and therefore obtain it from unprotected rivers, and fewer than a quarter of households have latrines…
…I took this experience back to my daughter’s classroom in the U.S. I showed her and her classmates what a house looks like in Ethiopia, how children have to get water from the well, and how attending school is considered a privilege. I tried to stress, but not overwhelm them, with the poverty I saw — I wanted to help them understand how lucky they are.”
Read Kim’s full story today in Global Motherhood on Huffington Post and lend your voice to answer the question of what the world needs more of at worldhumanitarianday.org.
Fadra Nally is a Communications Specialist for Johnson & Johnson. When she’s not working, she’s mothering a precocious 6 year old in the suburbs of Baltimore, MD. In her spare time, she writes all.things.fadra, one of the Top 100 Mom Blogs for 2012 according to Babble.com. She’s also the co-founder of Charitable Influence.