The training, which occurred between 31 October and 3 November, included interactive sessions, group work, case studies, role modelling and competency design to better understand the complexity of sustainable development and to identify comparative advantages of volunteerism in implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Volunteer Sonali Rani Das works as a nurse and has been a member of the mobile medical team since 2011. Currently the team is seeing 200 patients a day, all presenting complaints about the recent catastrophic floods that hit Bangladesh.  We are seeing a lot of women and children. They have problems like skin infections, eye infections, scabies, diarrhoea and asthma. We have even seen snake bites. When I see the children, I take the mother’s blood pressure and check her over too,” she explains.

Since the ambitious group of young women and young men was brought together in June 2016, UNV and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are supporting the network of youth and volunteers by facilitating knowledge-sharing and assisting young leaders to engage in regional and national initiatives. Throughout the initiative, UNDP and UNV have organized capacity-building webinars, arranged opportunities for young leaders to share their opinions in multi-stakeholder conferences at regional and country-level, and collaborated in online and offline activities. 

At the age of 25, Thakur earns his living as a porter, commuting several hours from his home in Nuwakot to the inner cities of Nepal, carting heavy goods over great distances. On 25 April 2015, as a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal, Thakur found himself running for two hours until he reached his family and youngest daughter who was severely injured. He rushed her to the nearby hospital, where, despite his efforts, she sadly passed away.

The main causes of forest and land degradation in the country include deforestation, inappropriate agricultural practices, forest fires, over-grazing and demographic pressures. A survey conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) reported that the annual deforestation rate between 2003 and 2010 had been 1.73 per cent. If this alarming trend were to persist, 17.3 per cent of the forest in the country would disappear by 2021 and all forests in Timor-Leste by 2071.

As the winds came howling through Delakado on that day, infrastructures entirely collapsed and homes came crumbling down. All but one. The 300 inhabitants of the village somehow managed to hide under the floorboards of a house that was built with a higher standard. The strongest stood above and with all their might, held the walls up until the storm subsided. Amazingly, no one was killed. It was a miraculous community effort which paved the way for the reconstruction process.

Authorities estimate that at least 228 houses collapsed or were swept away in this region, nearly 600 were damaged or unroofed and 657 billion Vietnam Dong or 28.9 million US dollars’ worth of crops, livestock and infrastructure were lost. Within a day of the flash floods, Viet Nam Red Cross Society volunteers arrived in the affected provinces to assist families with supplies, financial and emotional support, and other help from the Viet Nam Red Cross Society headquarters.

These events have multiplied over the last ten years, just when the planet has reached its all-time temperature records, blurring the difference between human-made and purely natural catastrophes.

A Bangladesh Red Crescent mobile medical team has been set up in Bangladesh, and it is run by volunteer Dr. Mohsin Ahmed. He explains that food, water and shelter are the main concern of the people he is seeing, most of whom are women and children.

The earthquake, which hit Nepal on 25 April 2015 with multiple aftershocks, brought about widespread destruction across the country and resulted in 8,790 deaths, 22,300 injuries and 755,549 houses that were either damaged or completely destroyed.  In coordination with UNDP experts on demolition, UN Volunteers undertook the structural assessment of public and private buildings damaged by the earthquake, including schools, health posts and monasteries.