International Friendship Day
July 30, 2024
International Friendship Day: a day to promote friendship and fellowship among all human beings
The International Day of Friendship – or World Friends Day – was declared in 2011 by the UN General Assembly and is celebrated on 30 July every year.
The World Friendship Crusade lobbied the UN for several years to recognise this day to promote friendship and fellowship among all human beings, regardless of race, colour or religion, to inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.
Celebrating bonds across borders
The theme for International Friendship Day 2024 is Celebrating Bonds Across Borders.
Our world faces many challenges and crises such as poverty, violence, and human rights abuses among many others that undermine peace, security, development and social harmony among the world's peoples.
To confront these issues, we must address their root causes by promoting and defending a shared spirit of human solidarity that takes many forms — the simplest of which is friendship.
Friendship is the key to a woman's recovery from obstetric fistula
A woman who suffers from obstetric fistula injuries often hides away in shame and isolation for fear of being shunned by her husband, community and family.
Rejected by everyone she knows and deprived of the love and inclusion that makes her feel like a valued member of society, she is left alone to fend for herself. She does not know there is a cure and believes she is the only woman suffering from this debilitating condition.
Mourning the stillbirth of their only child, incontinent of urine, ashamed of their offensiveness, often spurned by their husbands, homeless, unemployable except in the fields, they endure, they exist, without friends and without hope. They bear their sorrows in silent shame. Their miseries, untreated are utter, lonely and lifelong.
Dr Reg Hamlin
When a woman like Meseret arrives at a Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia hospital for treatment, she is warmly welcomed by staff and patients alike. Here, she is no longer alone and begins to make strong connections with other women who have suffered a similar fate.
Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Elders past, present and emerging throughout Australia and the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land and waterways on which our Australian office is situated. We acknowledge the many ethnic groups in Ethiopia and their ancestral and cultural connection to the land where our work is undertaken.