In Syria, 3.5 million of 6.5 million food-insecure Syrians receive food rations every month from the World Food Programme. Every month, WFP uses over 4,600 trucks to deliver emergency food assistance to more than 1,300 distribution points in all of Syria’s 14 governorates.

The West Bank field office, located in East Jerusalem, supports over 800,000 refugees of whom 25 per cent live in 19 camps.  Some camps are located next to major towns, while others are in rural areas. Takuma gained first-hand practical field experience during his assignment, working with project staff across a range of sectors implementing reform initiatives identified in the West Bank Annual Operational Plan and UNWRA Medium Term Strategy. 

Having been raised in a socially conservative environment, Natalie explains that she was one of the lucky ones. Empowered to pursue her education, she obtained a Master’s degree in Media and Development from the United Kingdom. Perhaps this is why joining UN Women as a volunteer after she settled in Jordan seemed like a natural move. Though she acknowledges that gender inequality is a worldwide issue, she says, "It’s hard to be a woman from the Middle East and not be affected by the issues around women’s rights."

Since 1950, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has been working to ensure recognition of the rights of five million refugees in the Near East. Among them are over half a million children who continue to receive quality education.

"I wish I could go back to Syria but what would I find there? Has my home survived? Would I be able to find a job?" These worries are expressed by many Syrian refugees who knock at the door of UNHCR in Amman, Jordan, seven years after the war began in Syria. UN Volunteers Anja Ingabire and Apoorva Sharma support UNHCR’s Refugee Status Determination Unit, interviewing asylum seekers to determine whether they meet the legal criteria to be recognized as refugees according to the 1951 Refugee Convention, and therefore are in need of international protection.

I served as a UN Volunteer at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean in Cairo, Egypt, from May 2016 until May 2017. This was a fantastic opportunity for me, both professionally and personally.

Sachiyo Miwa served as a UN Volunteer Associate Humanitarian Affairs Officer with OCHA in the Sudan under the Human Resource Development Programme for Peacebuilding and Development. During her assignment, Sachiyo gained critical oversight of the challenges actors face in delivering humanitarian response efforts. Sachiyo worked for the Coordination Support Section of OCHA, with a focus on assisting senior management in the preparation for Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) meetings and Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) meetings. 

UN Youth Volunteer Nour Hamayel is 26-years-old and has just completed a two-year assignment with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in her home country, the State of Palestine. As national UN Youth Volunteer, Nour’s primarily role was Y-PEER coordinator – facilitating conversations and activities in the State of Palestine on sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention on behalf of the UNFPA-funded Youth Peer Education Network.

Millions of Yemenis are affected by a terrible armed conflict, an impending famine and one of the world's largest cholera outbreaks in recent history. In May 2018, over 7,5 million people were receiving emergency food assistance — more than twice the number of people reached over a year ago.

There are more than 240,000 refugees and asylum seekers currently registered with UNHCR Egypt. Many are women and children. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) provides registration, refugee status determination, and protection assistance to refugees and asylum seekers from 58 nationalities, in coordination with national and international NGOs.