Question

what is humanitarian aid

Answer 1

Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it.

Answer 2

Humanitarian aid is given to meet the immediate needs of victims of disasters or violence. It can include food, water, medical supplies, tents, and other things required by those affected by everything from typhoons to civil wars.

Humanitarian aid is given to meet the immediate needs of victims of disasters or violence. It can include food, water, medical supplies, tents, and other things required by those affected by everything from typhoons to civil wars. Also known as emergency aid, it is distinct from development aid, which aims at long-term economic improvement.

Humanitarian aid in the modern, organized sense (people have, of course, been helping their neighbors in trouble for a very long time) starts roughly with the founding of what is now best known as the Red Cross. In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, appalled by the carnage of a battle near his home during the Franco-Austrian War, organized an impromptu group of medical caregivers to help injured soldiers on both sides. From that experience grew both the international Red Cross movement and the Geneva Convention, a set of principles for groups giving humanitarian aid. Key concepts: The groups would remain neutral and thus would not be attacked.

Since then, hundreds of other humanitarian groups have sprung up. Many governments also provide humanitarian aid in times of crisis. Celebrities have also gotten into the act, with efforts like the LiveAid concert in 1985 and similar star-studded appeals after 9/11 and the Haiti earthquake.