In 2021, 24 Chinese youth took up UN Volunteer assignments to serve with 14 UN agencies around the world. Shuyi Song was one of them. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shuyi's scheduled on-site assignment was changed to a telecommuting opportunity.

At 25 years of age, I was a teacher in Australia, yearning to experience something new. Out of the blue, I was offered an opportunity to teach at a missionary school in central Liberia. I remember going to a nearby library to check where Liberia was in the atlas!

Emmanuel is a national UN Volunteer Gender-based Violence Programme Specialist at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). He supports programming for innovative prevention, risk mitigation and quality response interventions in the Bay States of Nigeria (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe).

At UNHCR, there is a saying: "Protection is what we do, and we do it through programmes." With a background in development management, I am privileged to put my knowledge and skills into practice as UN Volunteer Associate Programme Officer with UNHCR in Somalia. In my role, I support the team leader and Field Officer in the UNHCR Area of Responsibility where I serve, ensuring business and operational continuity, and meaningful engagements in support of the communities that we serve.

On a summer day in 2019, Zoe Rimba was standing in front of the UNICEF Headquarters in New York as a graduate. She had just completed her studies in international and community development, and was about to return to Indonesia. At that very moment, a thought crossed her mind. What a great honour and privilege it would be to work for the cause of children across the globe!

I joined UNHCR Kenya as a UN Volunteer in June 2018 and have just concluded my volunteer assignment. During this period, I worked closely with my colleagues at UNHCR Kenya in promoting sustainable cities and communities. Our aim has been to help and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.

Indonesia is a vast country with more than 17,000 islands. This geography makes for considerable logistical challenges for the COVID-19 recovery.