With the main responsibility of assisting the Public Health Officer in the development and implementation of COVID-19 response programme, I learned that volunteering does not entail only performing your assigned duties, but to providing support to all spheres of the organization mainly the Global Fund Project Management Unit.

Many are drawn to volunteerism later in life as a way to contribute and give back to the societies and communities around them. For others, volunteering is a way to fulfil long-held ambitions, explore new fields of work and develop new skills. Whatever their motivation, the work of UNV’s partners and the places they live are enriched by the contributions of more than 600 older volunteers undertaking national and international assignments across the world. 

UNV calls on Haitians (or official residents) who are older than 22 years and willing to offer their skills and capacity to support an inclusive and sustainable response and recovery to the recent earthquake that devastated the country.  UNV is looking for a wide range of professional profiles: Information Managers, Field Assistants, Midwives, Communication Officers, Emergency Medical Technicians, Nutrition Specialists, Shelter Specialists, Logistic Operations Specialists and WASH Specialists, among others. 

Year 2020. After this one-year life-changing journey, I got my certificate and shared it on my LinkedIn profile, tagging the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme. With that another exciting journey began: people from all over the world started liking, sharing and asking me to talk through my experience with them. From Africa to Asia, more than 2,000 people felt inspired by two simple sentences I wrote when sharing my UN Volunteer Certificate of Service.

Last year "Myropolis" gathered nearly 200 young people from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (regions) to build city of peace: teenagers participated in educational and artistic activities that helped them to learn how to conduct negotiations for peace and recovery – important knowledge when you live in the conflict affected areas. Many of participants never left their villages before "Myropolis" sessions. Situation in these lands is really fragile and challenging: no descent roads, villages are very difficult to reach, parents do not allow children even to leave the houses.

The project focuses on development measures to contribute to prevention of violent extremism through in-country activities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. At the same time, all countries of Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, are taking part in the activities envisaged within the regional component of the initiative. The project is spearheaded by UNDP Kazakhstan, which works closely with the respective UNDP country offices and UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub (for regional components).

UN Volunteers are supporting a WHO project for Health Security in Turkey, which aims to improve services and the capacity of laboratories, and another for the Social Inclusion of Persons with Mental Disabilities. These projects have changed dramatically due to the outbreak.

Last March 2017, I had the opportunity of travelling to the northern part of Ghana to monitor some project interventions in disaster preparedness and to assess the impact on the beneficiaries. As I journeyed through the most remote parts of that region, I couldn’t help but to engage myself in deep thoughts about development across the country and particularly in such areas where many challenges are persisting.

The issue of women’s rights is a global issue. The status of women’s rights around the world is an important indicator of global well-being. Despite many successes in empowering women, numerous issues still persist in all areas of life. For example, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence is increasing in a variety of forms in Liberia. While there may be a decrease in some instances of physical domestic violence, both physical and emotional abuse continue to occur. 

Dinah Kayumba, a Zambian journalist, arrived in Sudan last month to take up her duties as a public outreach officer for the UN Integrated Referendum and Electoral Division (UNIRED). This is her third stint as a UN Volunteer working on elections in a foreign country.