Ann Kamunya is an international UN Volunteer with UNHCR in Ankara, Turkey, where she she joined as a UN Volunteer Associate Refugee Status Determination Officer in December 2016. This is not Ann's first volunteer experience. Prior to Turkey, she served with UNHCR as a national UN Volunteer in Nairobi and then in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, delivering for refugees who had been forcibly displaced from their home countries due to war or persecution.

Kakuma was founded in 1992 when large numbers of Sudanese and Ethiopian refugees poured into northern Kenya. There are 500,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya. Most of them live in two huge camps in the East and North of the country – Dadaab and Kakuma. In January 2018, more than 185,000 refugees resided in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Residents of the camp suffer from a harsh, dry climate and a higher population than current capacities allow.

Biological diversity, meaning the variety of plants, animals, and microorganisms, is under threat: according to estimates of the World Wildlife Fund, we are losing at least 10,000 species every year – and 99 percent of them are at risk from human activities. In 2016, we reached a record of global tree cover loss with 29.7 million hectares vanishing signifying a 51 percent increase from 2015.

When Esther Munene and Lilian Kamigwi founded Destiny Shapers, a community-based-organization working to provide literacy training to young children in the Korogocho slum in eastern Nairobi, Kenya, they had to work hard to convince the families of the 23 children to allow them to attend the daily classes.

"This has been the most useful and fun training I have been to," says Edgar Kiliba, UN Youth Volunteer Web and Social Media Communications Associate for the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Tanzania.  Edgar was one of 17 UN Youth Volunteers who participated in the Assignment Preparation Training in Nairobi and are being deployed to five countries on the African continent.

How do you see the partnership between UN Women and UN Volunteers and why is this important?

How do you see the partnership between UN Women and UN Volunteers and why is this important?

EMPOWERING YOUTH REFUGEES AS VOLUNTEERS

Nairobi, 19 February 2018 - UNV’s Deputy Executive Coordinator, Mr. Toily Kurbanov, will be travelling to South Sudan and Kenya between February 19 and February 23, 2018. The mission seeks to advance volunteerism’s positive impact on provision of social services, employment, peace and reconciliation. Mr. Kurbanov will recognize the work of UN Volunteers in hardship conditions, promote volunteerism as a powerful means in achieving the Agenda 2030 and inform UNV’s partners about the organization’s new priorities in 2018-2021.

Nairobi, 19 February 2018 - UNV’s Deputy Executive Coordinator, Mr. Toily Kurbanov, will be travelling to South Sudan and Kenya between February 19 and February 23, 2018. The mission seeks to advance volunteerism’s positive impact on provision of social services, employment, peace and reconciliation. Mr. Kurbanov will recognize the work of UN Volunteers in hardship conditions, promote volunteerism as a powerful means in achieving the Agenda 2030 and inform UNV’s partners about the organization’s new priorities in 2018-2021.