Photo © RET International

Article by RET International HQ

World Humanitarian Day – August 19, 2026

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Today is World Humanitarian Day, which exists to recognize the people who run toward a crisis instead of away from it. At RET, we’ve built our entire model around a specific version of that idea: That the fastest way to reach a crisis is to already be there.

That’s what localization means at RET. Since our founding, we’ve worked through local staff and local organizations, building the capacity of national NGOs rather than parachuting in in international teams to run things ourselves. It’s slower to build. It’s also the only way to respond in hours instead of weeks. Here’s a look at how we’ve done that over the last few years:

In Lebanon, we have worked alongside GATE Lebanon, a Lebanese partner organization protecting vulnerable women and youth and running food security programs in communities that international staff alone could never reach with the same trust or speed. That partnership is why, this summer, 46 young campers from the National Education Scouts could attend a safer summer camp in North Akkar. It’s why Aisha Itawi, a woman from Bireh, could turn a traditional embroidery skill into a livelihood and now teaches it to others. 

These are not isolated success stories. They are what happens when an organization has already spent years building relationships in a region, so that when a family needs help, the people showing up speak their language, know their community, and are already trusted. That same model is what let us act immediately in Venezuela.

On June 24, 2026, two major earthquakes struck Venezuela’s northern coast, devastating Caracas and La Guaira. RET has worked in Venezuela for more than 15 years. That history meant we didn’t have to build relationships or infrastructure from scratch while people were still under rubble. We activated our regional emergency mechanisms the same day, through RECOM, our Community Multisectoral Networks already embedded in affected areas, and launched Contigo Venezuela, a digital platform delivering reliable information and live support to families who had lost everything else. We’re now working to restore safe learning spaces and provide psychosocial support to children who watched their schools and homes collapse, in coordination with national authorities and UN partners.

This year’s World Humanitarian Day carries a message about global solidarity: that no single organization or country can meet today’s humanitarian needs alone. We’d add one thing to that. Solidarity has to be already in place before the crisis hits, or it arrives too late to matter. It looks like GATE in Lebanon, ACPEJ in the Democratic Republic of Congo, LEAP in Türkiye, RECOM in Venezuela. It looks like fifteen years of showing up in a community before anyone needed us to.

We don’t wait for a crisis to build trust. We act because we already have it.

This World Humanitarian Day, helps us keep bridging the gaps, before, during, and after the next emergency. Donate to our relief efforts in Venezuela.

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