Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity.
A UNICEF worker is distributing high-calorie food during an emergency situation in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 2008.
Humanitarian aid being distributed in Haiti
Henry Dunant
Henry Dunant at Solferino
Suffering, agony, or pain in a broad sense, may be an experience of unpleasantness or aversion, possibly associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence of affective phenomena. The opposite of suffering is pleasure or happiness.
Tragic mask on the façade of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden
Mahavira torch-bearer of ahimsa
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Neuroimaging sheds light on the seat of suffering