World Humanitarian Day | August 19

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World Humanitarian Day

Credit: MY HERO

Teachers: Share the importance of World Humanitarian Day with your students. Use the World Humanitarian Day Multimedia Lesson Plan in the classroom. Includes discussion guide and learning outcomes.

The following films, stories and artwork honor young heroes working to overcome the consequences of the climate emergency for the world's most vulnerable people and ensure that their voices are heard.

Slater Kemker Jewell is a young filmmaker and climate activist. She is the director of Youth Unstoppable, a documentary telling the untold stories of youth on the front lines of climate change, refusing to let their futures slip away. (An Inconvenient Youth was retitled Youth Unstoppable.)

Slater Unstoppable

Produced by:MY HERO

Director Slater Jewell Kemker is a filmmaker and environmental activist whose films document the environmental youth movement.

Slater Jewell-Kemker, Director, An Inconvenient Youth

By: The My Hero Project

Slater Jewell-Kemker is an award-winning student reporter and filmmaker who works for a better environment and for peace.

Off the Grid: A Climate Solution

Produced by:Slater Jewell-Kemker

Two girls go to Nepal to build a shelter that will collect fresh water and solar energy in hopes of solving community problems. (2:15 minutes run time)

An Inconvenient Youth - Cancun

Produced by:Slater Jewell-Kemker

Youth activists are exasperated by a lack of action from world leaders regarding climate change.

Greta Thunberg is a young Swedish environmental activist who is internationally known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation.

Greta Thunberg

By: Xenia Shin

Climate Activist and Leader of the Global Youth Climate Movement

Greta Thunberg Collage

By: Amaya Holland

Get inspired by stories and films about brave humanitarians providing education, shelter and aid to those affected by war, and bringing medical assistance to those in need.

Story

Yasmine Sherif: Global Educator and Champion for Youth

By: Shannon Luders-Manuel

Yasmine Sherif, who leads Education Cannot Wait, is an activist working for the rights of all children and the winner of MY HERO's 2020 Global Educator Award.

Dr. Hawa Abdi

By: Jane Wallace

Dr. Hawa Abdi is a Somali doctor, human rights activist and nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

tell us

Tell us about your hero

Credit: MH

Film

Vital Voices: Hawa Abdi

Produced by:Aaron Kisner

Dr. Hawa Abdi is Somalia's first female gynecologist. When the central government collapsed in 1989, Dr. Abdi's one-room clinic on her family farm began treating and housing local people fleeing the fighting.

Defying Death in South Sudan

Produced by:Francis Mead

Defying death in South Sudan. Featuring Humanitarian Hero Award Winner Ken Payumo. [Includes some violence and may not be appropriate for younger students.]

Jon Rose: Waves for Water

Produced by:Aaron Flynn & HURLEY

Waves for Water's mission is to get access to clean water to those in need around the world, in areas such as Puerto Rico, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Nepal and more.

Bosna Bakery

Producer: Adis Guso

A moving essay about a bakery in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina that gives food to the poor.

Listen & Read Along Stories

Doctors Without Borders

By: Nathaniel from Los Angeles

Doctors Without Borders gives medical care to people in 70 countries worldwide.

Malala Yousafzai

By: Jane Wallace

Malala Yousafzai speaks out for the rights of girls to have an education. This story has both text and audio.

Humanitarian Short Films that have won awards at the MY HERO International Film Festival

Águilas/Eagles [Trailer]

Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Maite Zubiaurre

"Along the scorching southern desert border in Arizona, it is estimated that only one out of every five missing migrants are ever found...

Sasa

Produced by:Diane Namm

A young doctor in Burma begins a medical revolution. Winner of The People's Choice Award.

Jon Rose - Humanitarian Hero

Produced by:Tom Aiello

Humanitarian Jon Rose brings clean water to the people of Haiti.

Father Malick

Cheikh Seck

Father Malick spent the best years of his life dedicating himself to helping people of all kinds.

Brian Cox

Produced by:The Working Group

Brian Cox, Senior Director for the South Park Recreation Center,transformed a broken neighborhood.

Sr. Betty Whyte

Produced by:Bua Philip

Age is not the matter, it is the issue of the mind.

Eradication of Malaria in Botswana

Produced by:Tommie Hamaluba from BOTSWANA

Tommie Hamaluba works incessantly in the fight against malaria in Botswana.

Vivienne

Produced by:Diane Namm

When 8-year old Vivienne Harr heard about children suffering from human trafficking, she founded Make a Stand Lemon-aid to raise funds to fight child slavery.

Monk Dreams

Produced by:Polly Green

With faith, vision and determination, anything is possible.

Trinity

Produced by:Ray Zablocki

Trinity is a short documentary film about a struggling Ugandan primary school located in the center of a suburban Kampala slum. The school educated more than 1,000 kids - most of whom can't pay - but the school's enigmatic, passionate founder Romans cannot bear to turn them away. It's a story of hope in the face of extreme poverty, and about creating a home for those who have nothing else.