On March 20th in Kenya, the the Government of Kenya, United Nations and International Community convened in Nairobi to join forces in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya.

UN Peacekeeping radio stations play a vital role in informing communities in conflict-affected states about the coronavirus pandemic and how people can keep safe. A better-informed public is key to fight COVID-19 and peacekeeping radio is playing its part.  “The stations ability to reach both big urban centers and isolated communities in countries which lack basic communications infrastructure, can play an important role in addressing the disease.” states UN News on March 27th, 2020. 

On 11 March, the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. Africa was initially spared from the outbreak; however, this has since changed rapidly. The entry of COVID-19 onto the continent is a serious issue of concern to the region's socio-economic and political stability. According to WHO, Africa bears 71% of the global distribution of communicable diseases, against a backdrop of relatively weaker health-care systems.

Q.  What is your take on gender equality in the region?

As a national UN Volunteer, I contribute to the work of the Global Land Indicators Initiative (GLII): a collaborative and inclusive process for developing global land indicators and whose partners aim at making global-scale monitoring of land governance a reality by 2021. GLII is hosted and facilitated by the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) in the Land, Housing and Shelter Section of the Urban Practices Branch of UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya.

I became a UN Volunteer because I want to offer my skills to make the world a better place. This experience has not only been a platform to gain professional experience, meet and work with people from different cultures or improve my communication and social skills. It has also changed my life. 

The main goal of the partnership is to enhance the capacity and engagement of youth from the region as key actors of change in global development issues. A selected number of Mount Kenya University students will be deployed for six months in various UN agencies in Kenya as UN University Volunteers to apply their knowledge and skills in several areas of UN peace and development work. The deployment is a result of the partnership agreement initially signed on 1 November 2019 between UNV and Mount Kenya University.

The main goal of the partnership is to enhance the capacity and engagement of youth from the region as key actors of change in global development issues. A selected number of Mount Kenya University students will be deployed for six months in various UN agencies in Kenya as UN University Volunteers to apply their knowledge and skills in several areas of UN peace and development work. The deployment is a result of the partnership agreement initially signed on 1 November 2019 between UNV and Mount Kenya University.

The project consisted of recruiting refugees from the camp and members from the host communities as Refugee Outreach Volunteers. Additionally, UNV used its refugee-to-refugee volunteer modality to recruit and deploy one refugee identified in the camp as a UN Volunteer. The Refugee Outreach Volunteers served with UNHCR and were provided with the necessary capacities, knowledge and resources to contribute to addressing their own protection needs.