The month of December was passing by and my sadness had turned into depression. At that moment, I had lived outside of Venezuela for almost two years, since I, like many other young people from my country, felt the need to look for opportunities beyond our borders. However, in my case, my stay in Colombia had become more challenging than expected: I couldn’t find a job where I could utilize my skills and professional knowledge, and I was quite far from content.

Multilingualism allows communication between the different Member States of the United Nations (UN) with different languages and cultures. In promoting tolerance, multilingualism ensures greater participation of all Member States in the work they perform within the Organization, as well as greater effectiveness, better results and greater participation. To promote the use of the six official languages and to guarantee the full and equitable treatment of all official languages, there are minimum standards for multilingualism of UN websites.

Karol Alejandra Arámbula Carrillo (Mexico) has been a Online Volunteer since 2011. One of her motivations to join UNV’s Online Volunteering service was the desire to help organisations in other countries carry out their work, especially in the field of gender equality. 

Through the Online Volunteering service, UNV offers: 

Maria Paula Fernandez Morel is a Online Volunteer Spanish Translator with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Argentina. 

A fully redesigned website for our Online Volunteering service was launched on July 15, 2016. Music: Purple planet (https://www.purple-planet.com/).

On 15 July, UNV will be launching its new Online Volunteering service from Brazil and in collaboration with the United Nations country team and the Samsung Latin American Office. Brazil has been selected as the location for the global launch as the country ranks #4 worldwide for the number of UN Online Volunteers and has a high potential for growth in online volunteering activities in general.

Global leader in technology, Samsung, has just announced an unprecedented partnership with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme the UN organization that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. UNV values volunteerism as a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges.

Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire:  In June 2014, 500 highly qualified and committed young Africans arrived in the United States to participate in the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Among them was Online Volunteer Jordan Sera from Côte d’Ivoire. Launched by President Barack Obama in 2010,YALI is a United States Department of State initiative aimed at educating and promoting networking among young African leaders. This includes a fellowship to study in the United States for several weeks.

During the first UNV Partnerships Forum that took place in Bonn, on September 30th and October 1st 2014, eight UN Volunteers were given the floor to share their experience as UN Volunteer. In this video, UN Online Volunteer Kirthi JAYAKUMAR, tells about her commitment and how she started volunteering online.