What is Humanitarian work?

Question

What kind of a degree do you need to do in order to get in to the field of Humanitarian work?
and what are the possible career options?

I have always been interested in 'helping people' and most of all 'making a change'. I would like to do something related to health - like working to prevent diseases in communities etc.
I was planning to do a degree in Public Health and Social Work, but yesterday I heard about this Humanitarian field.

Any advise or info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Humanitarian work is not a field of practice like public health or social work. Humanitarian work is any work that is of aid to the suffering that exists in the world. The clergy has historically been the largest contributor to humanitarian work, followed closely by the UN. There are many NGO's throughout the world that do humanitarian work (Peace corps and others). A degree in public health or social work is a good way to develop skills and theory to bring into this work. However, you can look at doing something like Americorp to begin to explore this work. DA