An international meeting of United Nations representatives is underway today and tomorrow, January 23-24, in Helsinki to discuss and agree on a comprehensive relief plan to provide aid in strife-torn Syria. UN Volunteers are an essential part of the response to this humanitarian crisis.  Highly qualified and largely from developing countries themselves, they provide relief and ensure the delivery of basic social services to refugees, as well as their host communities, and promote peace-building.

In 2015, I got the opportunity to become a UN Volunteer Child Protection Officer with UNICEF in Sudan. In a country severely affected by armed conflict, displacement and food insecurity, the humanitarian needs remain critical. In addition to an estimated 2.2 million people displaced internally, Sudan has received over a quarter of a million refugees fleeing the war in South Sudan. Approximate 70 per cent of these displaced people are children.

Etab, Rachel and Khaled are Palestinian refugees born and raised in Lebanon. They have been assigned as national UN Volunteers teachers of English and Arabic to Syrian-born Palestinian Refugees (PRS) pupils. Fleeing the Syrian conflict, the pupils are temporarily settled with their families in Lebanon.

Uganda is home to over half a million refugees residing in settlements and urban centres all over the country. Earlier this year the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) recognised Uganda as one of the best countries in the world for refugees to live, since they are given opportunities to work, freedom of movement, access to education, health care and a secure environment.

Maroua, Cameroon: Jimmy Henry Nyingcho, 31 years old, is a national UN Volunteer, married and a father of one. He is assigned with UN Women Cameroon as the gender, women empowerment and social cohesion expert, and he is helping women refugees gain skills to generate income. These women are based at the Minawao refugee camp in Maroua, that hosts close to 60,000 refugees from Nigeria.

Jasmin Sander, from Germany, recounts her experience as a UN Volunteer in Serbia.

Cairo, Egypt: My name is Mohammad Abbas. I am a national UN Volunteer in Egypt. An accountant for many years, I was really unhappy with my job. I wanted out. I got my chance in 2014. I became a Community Service Intern with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Interacting with people, guiding them, answering queries were all part of my job. In January 2015, I became UN Volunteer Reception Coordinator for UNHCR in Cairo.

New Delhi, India: Working as a UN Volunteer in an organisation like UNHCR is a life changing experience. It takes you out of your bubble and gives you the opportunity to understand real issues faced by people—people like you and me, people who have similar dreams and ambitions. As life forced them to become refugees in a land that is not their own, challenging their life skills and adaptation capabilities, they somehow find the resilience, the courage and determination to rebuild their lives.

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, Bobbie Baker, International UN Volunteer from Ireland tells his experiences about providing Basic social services in a refugee camp in Sudan.

Monrovia, Liberia:  I am the focal person for World Refugee Day in Liberia. As a Public Information Officer, working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) gives me the opportunity to listen and tell the stories of people torn apart by war - nursing mothers, children, pregnant women and the elderly.