In 1963, Harvey Ball created the smiley face symbol - a yellow circle with black eye dots and a smile curve. World Smile Day began in 1999 and is on the first Friday of October each year. It is a Day to smile and to make small acts of kindness. Harvey wanted to keep the […]
International Day of Non-Violence marks the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the famous and much-loved leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence. The Day is to disseminate the message of non-violence, and to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence. In Gandhi's words: Non-violence is the […]
In use since about 1755, the word habitat derives from the Latin habitāre, to inhabit, from habēre, to have or to hold. Human habitats are places where people live and where they can find all things that they need to survive. World Habitat Day is to reflect on the basic right of all humans to […]
World Teachers' Day is co-convened by UNICEF, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Education International. It marks the adoption in 1994 of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers which sets out teacher rights and responsibilities, standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions. Sustainable Development […]
The first World Migratory Bird Day in 2006 was to counter some of the negative publicity migratory birds were receiving at the peak of the Avian Influenza discussion. Themes in subsequent years included: the plight of migratory birds due to global warming (2007) migratory birds as messengers for the conservation of biodiversity worldwide (2008) the […]
World Post Day marks the 1874 establishment of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874 in Bern, Switzerland. The postal network comprises more than 650,000 offices and 5.3 million staff and public service mandates to deliver services to anyone, anywhere. The Day is to create awareness of the role of the postal sector in people’s […]
Mental health is about what is going well. It is an individual's state of well-being and their capacity to thus realise their potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and contribute to community. World Mental Health Day is to raise awareness of mental health issues and mobilise efforts in support […]
Across the world, nearly 1 in 4 girls aged 15 to 19 years is neither employed nor in education or training compared to 1 in 10 boys of the same age. By 2021, around 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day. 1 in 3 women worldwide has experienced […]
According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), from 2000 to 2019, there were 7,348 major recorded disaster events claiming 1.23 million lives, affecting 4.2 billion people and resulting in approximately US$2.97 trillion in global economic losses. International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction is to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and […]
Women and girls play a crucial role in ensuring the sustainability of rural households and communities, improving rural livelihoods and overall wellbeing. Accounting for a substantial proportion of the agricultural labour force, including informal work, females perform the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work within families and households in rural areas and make significant […]