Australian Singer-Songwriter Cody Simpson has joined an elite group of ambassadors to reach more than half a billion Facebook and Twitter feeds, with real-life stories from survivors of humanitarian crises as part of a massive digital storytelling campaign. The campaign was launched by the United Nations and partners in the name of inspiring the world’s humanity.
“On this World Humanitarian Day, I urge everyone to show solidarity as global citizens by signing up to the #ShareHumanity campaign,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, at a special event on the eve of World Humanitarian Day. “By donating your social media feeds for just one day you can promote humanitarian action and help to give a voice to the voiceless by sharing their stories of crisis, hope and resilience.”
Today, more than 100 million people in countries across the world currently need urgent life-saving humanitarian aid, with nearly 60 million people now forcibly displaced. This is a crisis of forced migration on a scale not seen in the post-World War era, in which a displaced person will remain, on average, displaced for 17 years.
These growing humanitarian needs and finding better ways to respond to them are the impetus behind the Secretary-General’s World Humanitarian Summit, to be held in Turkey in 2016 – his ambitious global call to action to reduce human loss and suffering from humanitarian crises. He kicked off the official countdown to the Summit by revealing a massive virtual clock at the event and pressing a symbolic button. The global gathering of world leaders from government, business and communities will be held in Istanbul in May – just 278 days away.
Click here for more stories on Cody’s sister, Alli Simpson.
