Oleksandra Gaskevych(Ukraine) is a UN Volunteer Communications Specialist with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Kazakhstan. She recently received a prestigious award given to young leaders for their contribution to development from the Minister of Health of Kazakhstan, at the Global Conference on Primary Health Care.
For the last seven months, Oleksandra has been leading the communications team at the UNICEF Kazakhstan country office. This involves a lot of tasks, including implementation of the Communication and Advocacy Strategy, namely producing digital content and facilitation of all public events.
Oleksandra works closely with influencers, including media, government and non-governmental organization representatives and community leaders to promote UNICEF advocacy messages, establish sustainable contacts and ensure effective information dissemination. As communication and advocacy lead for Kazakhstan CO, she also liaises with programme sections and senior management to mobilize donor contributions and explore potential partnerships.
As Communication Specialist, I closely work with all the UNICEF Programme sections to to protect children’s rights in Kazakhstan, facilitate access to quality social services, health care and education. For me, UNV was a great opportunity to make my contribution in promotion of children’s rights in Kazakhstan. --Oleksandra Gaskevych, UN Volunteer Communications Officer with Unicef, Kazakhstan.
Ensuring equal opportunities for children is the most important task for UNICEF, both in Kazakhstan and worldwide. Equality means the ability for all children to survive, develop and fully implement their potential.
On 25-26 October, the Global Conference on Primary Health Care took place in Astana. UNICEF was one of the co-organizers of this high-level event with delegates from all over the world, together with the Ministry of Healthcare of Kazakhstan and the World Health Organization (WHO). Oleksandra was involved in all the preparations.
Oleksandra explains, "at the Global PHC Conference, the new Astana Declaration was signed with the aim of bringing primary health care to a new level and helping to achieve health for all. At the closing session of the Conference, the Minister of Healthcare of Kazakhstan on behalf of the Government of the hosting country awarded Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF Executive Director, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General, for their contribution in the development of healthcare."
The Government also decided to give an award to young leaders from the organizations which were co-organizers of the Conference, and I am honoured to be the one awarded from the UNICEF team. I believe that this award belongs to the entire team, which was working hard to make this event successful. --Oleksandra Gaskevych.
At the Global Conference on Primary Health Care, UN Volunteer Communications Officer Oleksandra Gaskevych received a prestigious award given to young leaders for their contribution to development from the Minister of Health of Kazakhstan. (UNICEF, 2018)
Oleksandra continues to serve as a UN Volunteer in Kazakhstan and reports that it has been a great experience so far.
Becoming a UN volunteer allowed me to become a part of the UNV family – where everyone is doing their contribution in making the world a better place. International experience with the United Nations allowed me to work in a different context, which was a strong motivation to find new approaches and to think differently about my ways of working. --Oleksandra Gaskevych
Oleksandra Gaskevych has a background in communications, with a Master's degree in Journalism and a diploma in Media and Video Production from the United States. Before joining UNICEF, she worked in communications for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ukraine. She also has experience working for media and TV production.