Eda Senel, Kivilcim Kardelen Yok, and Pelin Kocer were always interested in gender issues. Now, as UN Volunteers, they apply their knowledge gained throughout their academic studies and previous internships, to contribute to the improvement of coordination and operations.  

Joanna Gbotoe is a Liberian nurse serving at The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) in the medical section. Since the beginning of the COVID-10 outbreak, she has played a key role in the Mission regarding prevention activities. Her work involves detecting suspected cases, providing essential treatment, helping in decontamination, and coordinating patient's evacuation.

Following the outbreak of the pandemic in Kenya, 50 UN Volunteer health experts were deployed through a UN joint programme to support the COVID-19 response at county level, where the unexpected surge of infections had overstretched healthcare service-delivery capacity, impacting lives and livelihoods.

UN Volunteers contributed to essential tasks, including logistics organization, recruitment, and training of members of voting stations in preparing for the election last November. Some of the UN Volunteers also coordinated communication with the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) for the upcoming voting.  The 62 UN Community Volunteers assisted the local commissions in the reception of election materials and documents, their packaging, and effective distribution, in collaboration with the polling stations. 

Calling on YOU to join our Talent Pool! UNV is lining up skilled professionals to support UN entities – and through them UN Member States – in their COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. This includes key partners such as the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), International Organization for Migration (IOM), World Food Programme (WFP) and World Health Organization (WHO).

I have served as an Online Volunteer with the UN Volunteers (UNV) programme, partaking in emergency mapping, women’s rights advocacy, NGO funding, creating learning opportunities for people in poverty, rare bird species conservation and much more. 

As Nepal began to shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak, myths and misinformation about the pandemic started spreading fast – through personal interactions and social media. To address this issue and to ensure the safety of all communities, the UN Volunteers (UNV) programme, together with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), UN Development Programme (UNDP), World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Resident Coordinator's Office (UNRCO), formed the Volunteer for Action (V4Action) group, comprising 500+ volunteers from all seven provinces of Nepal.

Just as it is an obligation to pay taxes, it is also an obligation to transfer social responsibility and the awareness we create within us as a culture to our children and society. That is why I would like to thank the individuals and institutions that managed to come together, despite their differences and across varying fields, on 5 December, International Volunteer Day. --Mert Fırat, UNDP Goodwill Ambassador and Turkish actor

During these past 10 months, while we were all facing a global crisis devastating our socio-economic systems, adaptation, resilience and solidarity have enabled us to respond.

Dina is one of seven people selected for international volunteering in the framework of an agreement between the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and Kazakhstan. Knowledgeable young expert that she is, Dina is quickly adjusting to the UN environment and gaining sound experience in the field of international politics. Born and raised in Kazakhstan, the now 26-year-old volunteer serves at the UNDP office in Istanbul.