Growing up in Madagascar, Diana Ranja witnessed how poverty deprived children of education and healthcare. This inspired her journey as a UN Volunteer with UNICEF in Djibouti, where she serves as an Education Specialist. 

Atsushi is from Chiba city in Japan and started his UN Volunteer assignment with UNDP on 7 December 2024. He is based in Djibouti, where he will support agricultural businesses and food security till almost the end of 2025. The project is funded through the Japanese Supplementary Budget and titled, 'Support to UN response to water and food insecurity caused by climate change and drought in Sub-Saharan Africa through the deployment of Japanese Specialists as UN Volunteers.'

To support UNHCR in delivering its mandate, more than 310 UN Volunteers have served with in the Arab States during the period 2016-2019, over 50 per cent of them women. This group of diverse and well-trained practitioners strengthened UNHCR’s capacity to provide protection and critical emergency assistance for refugees, instilling hope and trust in hard times.