Christina Sfeir (Lebanon) is currently completing her second assignment as an Online Volunteer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). She is offering her expertise in clinical psychology as an online counsellor for family members of OCHA staff in Sudan. Earlier this year, Christina provided similar services through OCHA to children of survivors of the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria.

I served at the UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector Development in Türkiye as a Research and Partnership Analyst with a focus to ensure the engagement of private-sector partnerships for developing digital skills and the green economy. 

My work as UN staff member has been incredibly important in helping me develop new skills and qualities through peacekeeping missions, but the most valuable learning experiences came from my time as a UN Volunteer. This was challenging, inspiring, rewarding and demanding all at the same time and I’m sure will continue to influence my work for the rest of my life.

As a young woman, I have always been motivated to create spaces for women to participate in decision making and take on leadership roles. I want to help eliminate barriers to gender equality in my country and region and accelerate achieving 50-50 by 2030 globally. --Ekin Su Yilmaz, UN Youth Volunteer with UN Women, Turkey

Ann Kamunya is an international UN Volunteer with UNHCR in Ankara, Turkey, where she she joined as a UN Volunteer Associate Refugee Status Determination Officer in December 2016. This is not Ann's first volunteer experience. Prior to Turkey, she served with UNHCR as a national UN Volunteer in Nairobi and then in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, delivering for refugees who had been forcibly displaced from their home countries due to war or persecution.

I am a volunteer. Most often than not the response I get sounds like ‘You are just doing something for free? Girl you should get a real job’ or ‘So you hand out fliers every day?’ Mmm.. Not really.

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme continues to demonstrate its ability to meet contemporary development and peace challenges.  In 2016, UNV’s response to the refugee and migrant influx showcased this flexibility and rapid action capabilities through the deployment of hundreds of UN Volunteers who support humanitarian and development initiatives benefiting Syrian refugees and their host communities. Responding to the refugee and migrant influx in Europe

By Toily Kurbanov, UNV Deputy Executive Coordinator, Management Services On Monday, 5 December the world will celebrate International Volunteer Day, designated by the United Nations in 1985 to applaud the inspiration of millions of volunteers throughout the world and their contributions to peace and development. 

Istanbul, Turkey:  To inform the future of humanitarian action, the UN Secretary General convened the World Humanitarian Summit on 23 and 24 May 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. In attendance at the summit were representatives of 173 UN member states, heads of states and governments, private sector, NGOs, and civil society organizations representatives.

The critical role of volunteers as first responders in emergencies and crises was the topic of a side event that was held on 23 May on the sidelines of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul. The panel discussion was jointly held by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).