This week, ahead of World Humanitarian Day on 19 August, we spotlight the efforts of humanitarian workers and the risks they take to support people in crisis.

The theme for World Humanitarian Day 2024 is #Act For Humanity.

On this World Humanitarian Day, we salute the courage and dedication of humanitarian aid workers everywhere. We reaffirm our full support for their determined and life-saving efforts across the world. We celebrate their unwavering dedication to serve ALL people in need: No
matter who, no matter where; no matter what. The humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence provide the foundation for humanitarian action. They are central to establishing and maintaining access and delivering humanitarian assistance to people who need help, whether in a disaster or a complex emergency, such as armed conflict

This day was designated in memory of the 19 August 2003 bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, killing 22 humanitarian workers

St John International is a global organisation of humanitarian charities. At the very core of our work are the 160,000+ St John volunteers who give their time, effort and expertise to help others

  •  We run Mother and Baby programmes in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Uganda,
  • St John Hong Kong offer dental care, and cycling response units which can get quickly to hard-to-access places where people need urgent medical care
  • We operate blood donation centres in Malaysia and Kenya
  • St John Canada runs a very successful Opioid Overdose Response Unit
  • Dialysis support is offered in Malaysia,
  • St John Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mauritius, and South Africa all offer Home-Based Care Training

Active in South Africa for over 130 years, we offer range of humanitarian services: first aid training; community health training; eye tests and the provision of spectacles to those who cannot afford medical aid; a national youth development programme; a national volunteer programme; ambulance services; care for the elderly and community first aid. 

 

With a tradition going back to the Middle Ages, when the care of sick pilgrims, and later any sick person, was carried out by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, the Orders of St. John today continue to look after the sick and the poor under their emblem of the eight-pointed white cross