“Volunteering with UNICEF has helped me expand my knowledge on child protection issues and develop a passion for advancing children’s rights,” says So Dam Hong, a UN Youth Volunteer who supports adolescent empowerment to end child marriage in India, a core strategy of UNICEF.

UN Volunteers play a critical role in supporting the safety and security of the workforce in Tripoli as part of UNSMIL. For Fabrice Bitariho, 41, a UN Volunteer Medical Officer from Burundi, each day holds the potential to rescue and safeguard lives. Using his medical skills, he navigates priorities, ensuring that effective actions are taken during time-sensitive situations. 

Binod Chand, Bikas Jha, Kushal Limbu, Madhusudan Ghimire and Shraddha Thapa are UN Volunteer Infrastructure Asset Management Associates. They serve with the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), in Nepal. While engaging with key stakeholders and elected officials, the group of five invest time to fully understand the impact of existing policies, laws and regulations on municipal asset management and areas of reform and improvement.

In Peru, UNV partnered with two UN entities that host the highest numbers of UN Volunteers, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), to carry out a talent outreach mission on the northern border of the country. 

As a Humanitarian Affairs Officer, Lepani’s assignment focused on fostering coordination and liaison with partners in the field, with a special emphasis on the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Republic of Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Kiribati and Tuvalu. These countries fall under the purview of OCHA’s Office of the Pacific Islands.

One hundred Online Volunteers were deployed with UNHCR for almost two months on a campaign that ended this week. Almost all of them were nationals of Niger. Through social media posts, they raised awareness of the rights of refugees in Niger and addressed Sustainable Development Goal 10, reducing inequalities. The posts further highlighted the urgent need to find solutions for refugees in the country – mostly from Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria. 

Meet  Sabilou Ibrahim, a national UN Volunteer specialist responsible for monitoring and evaluation. Sabilou recalls his first week with UNICEF Benin, where he quickly felt welcomed and motivated to start his assignment. “It just took me 72 hours to be adopted by my colleagues” he states. 

Scaling up education efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo Born and raised in a small village in Northern Sumatera, Indonesia, Astrini Simanjuntak witnessed stark inequalities in her community in terms of access to basic services, particularly among women and girls. This pushed her to pursue a master’s degree in sociology, majoring in gender.

In the past months, the Youth4Climate initiative has benefited from the efforts of two Online Volunteers: Issakha Khouzeifi and Silvia Alfonsi. Over a period of four weeks, they supported the UNDP team by mentoring young people and helping them in preparing and improving their proposals in response to the Youth4climate call for solutions.

The life path of 21-year-old Anes was not the same as that of his peers. From early childhood he walked through a world that often did not understand his unique abilities. He was born with Down syndrome, which greatly influenced his upbringing and life circumstances, from schooling and adolescence to acceptance in society. But every obstacle was a new step towards success for him.