Daniel Valbuena

The children of Timor-Leste face many barriers to living a full and prosperous life. Poverty, malnutrition and poor access to healthcare mean that many children are unable to thrive. Only one in four children aged 3-5 years have access to pre-school and the others start schooling directly in grade 1, leaving them at a disadvantage that may impact subsequent years of their education.

Ayaka’s assignment had a strong focus on COVID-19 response and capacity building, along with accelerating private sector engagement in the Sustainable Development Goals. She also enhanced Uzbekistan’s participation in the UN Food Systems Summit last year. 

Malou had worked earlier as a consultant for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and UN Development Programme (UNDP), and as a staff member in UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), all in the Philippines. She is now a UN Volunteer Coordination Assistant in the Philippines.

I came to Jordan to support the Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) response, as part of the national campaign to eliminate the COVID-19 virus. The main role of UNICEF in the campaign is to build the capacities of the government to respond to COVID-19.

Kristian Yudhianto serves in Indonesia's second-largest city, Surabaya, in East Java. As a Health Officer, his primary responsibility is to support the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the city and across eight districts. He works with other public health professionals to carefully analyze immunization data and help with logistical planning and vaccine readiness assessments.

I started my assignment in UNICEF’s Social Policy Cluster, and as the pandemic hit, I took on an additional role supporting their Education Cluster in their COVID-19 response team. My work focused on compiling evidence on the severity of the pandemic’s impact on schools and learning in Indonesia’s rural and remote areas and providing feedback to inform the Ministry of Education’s COVID-19 response plan.

What do you do as a UN Volunteer? The Global Fund’s COVID-19 response programme aims to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the fight to defeat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and promotes urgent improvements in health and community systems.

By introducing a law against gender-based violence in 2011 and adopting a positive discrimination approach, progress made in Cabo Verde has been encouraging. Unfortunately, entrenched patriarchal gender stereotypes persist and many of these have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. More women were isolated at home and many social services closed, which resulted in the increased vulnerability of women and girls to domestic abuse and other forms of violence. Work continues to recover these gains and promote greater equality for women in Cabo Verde.

As a Communications Assistant with UN Women, Zhu Liu was responsible for the communication and advocacy activities of the COVID-19 recovery project and the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme. She promoted and advocated gender equality and women’s rights through multiple channels, and developed social media content and online campaigns on Weibo, WeChat, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.