icon icon icon icon icon icon icon

Cats for human rights!

A young girl from Simajuleu, Guatemala, shares a moment with a kitten after a long afternoon spent attending meetings with her mother, who participates in CARE’s women’s economic justice programs. Photo: Laura Noel/CARE

A young girl from Simajuleu, Guatemala, shares a moment with a kitten after a long afternoon spent attending meetings with her mother, who participates in CARE’s women’s economic justice programs. Photo: Laura Noel/CARE

Celebrated every year on Aug. 8, International Cat Day honors our feline friends, who often serve as symbols of grace, independence, and comfort for people around the world.

While it may seem like a slightly unusual topic for a humanitarian non-profit like CARE, we’ve seen that in many cultures, cats are more than just pets; they are companions that transcend barriers and bring people together.

As an organization dedicated to human welfare, we recognize the therapeutic value of animals, and the joy they bring to people’s lives.

On this International Cat Day, we want to take a moment to appreciate the ways cats contribute to our mental well-being and foster a sense of community, and so we’re sharing just a few of our best cat photos from some of the 111 countries where we work.

Please join us in celebrating International Cat Day by sharing your own photos and stories with the hashtag #CatsForHumanRights, and help us deepen this connection that inspires empathy, compassion, and understanding in our broader humanitarian efforts.

Together with her family and two cats, Masha lives in a shelter in Ivano-Frankivsk, Poland. When they fled from Ukraine at the start of the war, they had to leave their two cats behind, but volunteers went back to get them and reunited the family. Photo: Sarah Easter/CARE
A light-hearted moment at a Cargill learning demonstration in Simajuleu, Guatemala, where a kitten was eager to sample the food created at the Nov. 2022 meeting. Photo: Laura Noel/CARE
Humanitarian aid worker Victoria Fiohnostava, 32, standing in the sleeping room with one of the many cats in the emergency shelter in Lviv, Ukraine. Photo: Roman Yeremenko/CARE
When the war in Ukraine began, 39-year-old mother Lobov and her 20-year-old daughter Anastasia came to Romania from Odesa with their 2.5-year-old cat, Busia. Photo: CARE Poland
A stray cat finds a high vantage point to survey the ruins of Petra, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Southwest Jordan in 2019. Photo: Laura Noel/CARE
A shop cat makes herself at home in a souvenir store in Amman, Jordan in 2019. Photo: Laura Noel/CARE
Immacula Louisaint poses for a photograph with her cat in her small roadside store that has been supported by CARE International's loan program, in Port au Prince, Haiti on Jan. 17, 2013. Photo: Kate Holt/CARE
An unknown graffiti artist sketched this watchful cat on a Barcelona, Spain, wall, in 2022. Photo: Laura Noel/CARE
A displaced family in a camp in Idlib waits at the end of the day for the sunset call to prayer to break their fast. They eat their Iftar meal with their cat, which was also displaced with the family from their hometown. Photo: CARE
A young girl from Simajuleu, Guatemala, snuggles with a kitten while her mother attends a learning session and cooking demonstration in November 2022. Photo: Laura Noel/CARE
Back to Top