"A selfie to brag about helping." Typically a
American or European volunteer in Africa or Southeast Asia taking a picture of themselves with a child or children that are obviously poor, often showing the
American or European offering
help to the child or children, or implying such help. These photos are often used as Tinder profile pictures, and eventually are featured on Humanitarians of Tinder.
Also can be a photograph of a humanitarian aid worker in the act of helping a needy person, used in the context of fundraising for the humanitarian organization. As referenced in an official USAID response, "Small
et. al 2007 has shown that well-lit photos and helpies generate more funding than text-
based, and data-driven presentations of complex, global problems."
"She took a beautiful helpie of her and a child at
the village school in
Uganda where she volunteered for a week. Now its her Tinder profile
picture and her organization is using that photo as a helpie in their annual report"
