Top 5 Humanitarian Organisations Offering Aid Work for this World Humanitarian Day

Although our world seems to be more peaceful over the last few decades, with no World Wars or Cold War happening, many localised conflicts have brought about a major need for relief organisations and humanitarian aid.
This is why this Sunday is dedicated to recognising the work done by countless volunteers and organisations to help regions locked in war or recovering from that.
With regards to the recent scandals involving relief organisations, we at Whatson have compiled a list of the best, most ethical ones and what their work involves.
World Food Programme (WFP)
The leading humanitarian organisation, World Food Programme has been around since 1961 and is currently assisting 80 million people in 80 different countries.
Working within the UN infrastructure, WFP delivers food to vulnerable communities and works towards boosting nutrition and food security.
Their aim is to make sure no one is left behind. Two thirds of their works is in conflict-affected countries, where people are three times more likely to be undernourished.
Since their first global crisis in northern Iran in 1962, WFP has made a name of itself as a gamechanger in relief work, and seeks to eradicate world hunger by 2030.
This year, however, it has been embroiled in in the UN sexual harassment scandal, with the WFP country director in Afghanistan, Mick Lorentzen, was suspended in January.
Doctors without Borders
This French organisation is best known for their medical work in conflict zones and countries suffering from epidemic outbreaks.
A small group of French doctors and journalists first put it together in 1971, when the Biafra secession in east Nigeria was underway.
Since then it has been involved in many relief organisations, while calling for impartiality and independence (which is why they limit governmental and intergovernmental donors).
Doctors without Borders is stationed in more than 60 countries. Due to the unique way the organisation is funded, doctors and nurses can react much faster than most relief organisations. Five minutes was all it took to treat the first victim in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
Refugees International
Refugees and internally displaces people are a relatively new issue that needs tackling and unique problemsolving. There are 68.5mln people currently in the world, who are displaced by war, conflict, and persecution.
Refugees International is an organisation advocating for lifesaving assistance and protection for displaced people and promoting solutions to displacement crises.
As an independent organisation, it doesn’t accept any UN or government funding, so that it can keep up setting out timely responses to humanitarian crises.
Beyond that, it also functions as an advocate and consultant for immediate relief and lifesaving solutions to refugees.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, or better known as Red Cross in the US and UK, and Red Crescent in other countries, is a massive international humanitarian movement, which numbers 17 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide.
Started in 1863 by Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, the organisation has a national and local branches in each country around the world.
The aim of the British Red Cross is to help anyone, anywhere in the UK and around the world, offering a range of services and support.
From giving support to families and communities to helping refugees and people in disadvantaged positions, the British Red Cross is very much a big player in the field and the results show it.
Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART)
HART is unique in that it takes their workers where there is no international attention and outside help.
Workers go to help communities which are active conflict zones (like Burma, Nigeria, South Sudan and Sudan), but also ones which are still recovering from conflicts (such as Nagorno-Karabakh, northern Uganda and Timor Leste).
Places where people are marginalised and exploited for cultural, political and economic reasons also get the attention of HART workers.
“HART is not just another aid organisation,” Baronness Caroline Cox has said of the organisation.
“We combine aid with advocacy, working for peoples suffering from oppression, exploitation and persecution who are generally not served by major aid organisations and are off the radar screen of international media.”
What HART emphasizes as an important part of their work is their collaboration with local people. By doing that, the organisation makes sure that the work carried out by them is actually beneficial to communities, while also maintaining their dignity and preserves the local economy.
> Borislava Todorova