This Sunday is World Humanitarian Aid day, a global event organized by the United Nations as well as dozens of international aid groups. Beyonce is a spokesperson for the project, whose goal is to reach 1 billion people via its social media campaign this year.
Titled “I Was Here” the campaign is aimed to inspire people across the world to perform a good deed and help another person, regardless of the scale. Beyonce recorded a music video for the song of the same name, a performance of the piece at the U.N. General Assembly Hall. Sunday will be the debut of the video, broadcast on big screens in Dubai, Geneva and New York’s Time Square, among other international locations.
“’I Was Here’ says I want to leave my footprints in the sands of time, and that is leaving our mark on the world,” Beyonce said during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “We all want to know that our life meant something, and that we did something for someone else, and that we spread positivity no matter how big or how small.”
August 19 was dubbed as World Humanitarian Day four years ago, meant to honor the deaths of 22 U.N. staff members who were killed in the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad. The United Nations offers a number of ways in which individuals can contribute to the effort, such as making a sandwich for a homeless person, volunteering for a community service project, or donating old belongings to charity.
“This year’s World Humanitarian Day presents a historic opportunity to bring together 1 billion people from around the world to advance a powerful and proactive idea: people helping people,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said via a statement. “From international efforts to avert a hunger crisis in West Africa, to urgent assistance to civilians in Syria, to a single good deed from one neighbor to the next, the spirit of people helping people improves conditions for all.”
