Humanitarian work can be many things – incredibly rewarding of course, but often frustrating, exhausting, dangerous and lonely. Yet it is a sector that thousands of people have been drawn to. The latest figures (pdf) from ALNAP estimates that there are 274,000 humanitarian workers worldwide.

World Humanitarian Day, on 19 August, was established in 2009 as an initiative by the UN to raise awareness of those men and women working tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of 130 million people around the world.- source-guardian.com