According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Chad faces a combination of rapid onset and protracted humanitarian crises exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some 5.5 million people, including 2.7 million children, need humanitarian assistance. In 2021, 22 UN Volunteers joined the UNICEF team in Chad to help the most vulnerable children access quality health services and education and grow up protected from violence and exploitation.
"We have six international UN Volunteers and 16 national UN Volunteers, which represents 10 per cent of the overall personnel of UNICEF. They contribute significantly to achieving results for the children of Chad," says Mariana Stirbu, the Deputy Representative of UNICEF.
UN Volunteers are engaged in reducing the number of cases of severe acute malnutrition. They participate in UNICEF’s emergency programmes and help to document results and present them to the public, donors, communities, non-governmental organizations and other partners. They also coordinate an efficient reporting system, analyzing data and amplifying youth voices.
UN Volunteers are dynamic, full of ideas and innovative. They have new ways of engaging young people to become change-makers. This is the added value they bring to the work of UNICEF in Chad. They are at the forefront of humanitarian and development work in general. We are grateful to have them on our team. --Mariana Stirbu, Deputy Representative, UNICEF
Mariana shares more of her appreciation of the work of UN Volunteers in the below video.