New York - The United Nations campaign highlighting the work of the world’s humanitarian
workers has reached 100 million people through social media so far, the world
body announced today, describing it as its “first milestone” that gets it closer to the one
billion mark, which it aims to reach by World Humanitarian Day on 19 August.   

The campaign, ‘I Was Here,’ allows people to transmit messages of support from
people who have registered online across the world pledging humanitarian action,
however big or small. Members of the public can then share their individual acts
of good through the interactive website <"http://www.whd-iwashere.org/">www.whd-iwashere.org.   


Organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),
the campaign has gained momentum in the past few days following the video
recording – in front of more than 1,200 fans, celebrities, humanitarian workers
and dignitaries – on Friday night, at the General Assembly Hall at UN
Headquarters in New York, of US performing artist Beyoncé singing the song “I
Was Here.’    

The video of the song, which Beyoncé and songwriter Diane Warren donated to the
campaign, will premiere globally on 19 August, with displays on big screens in
the cities of Dubai, Geneva, Addis Ababa, as well as in New York City’s Times
Square, among other locales.   

“Everyone can be a humanitarian. All it takes is one act to help someone else,”
the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, said
during the Friday night event, which was hosted by television journalist
Anderson Cooper. “That’s the spirit of people helping people.”   

During the event, Mr. Cooper interviewing former child soldier Ishmael Beah, who
fought in Sierra Leone’s civil war; Pernille Ironside, a UN Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) child protection officer; New York photographer Erin Dinan, whose
non-profit organization One Sandwich at a Time feeds people living on the
streets; and Laurent Vieira de Mello, whose father – a senior UN official,
Sergio Vieira de Mello – died along with 21 other humanitarians in an attack in
Iraq.   

The General Assembly proclaimed 19 August as World Humanitarian Day in 2008 to
commemorate that attack, which took place at the UN’s offices in Baghdad’s Canal
Hotel in 2003. In addition to killing 22 people, another150 people were injured.   


The Day aims to honour those who have lost their lives in humanitarian service
and those who continue to bring assistance and relief to millions, in addition
to drawing attention to humanitarian needs worldwide and the importance of
international cooperation in meeting those needs.