Six years ago, Japan faced a paralysing triple disaster: a massive earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns that forced 470,000 people to evacuate from more than 80 towns, villages, and cities. While in some coastal cities, no-one was killed by waves that reached up to 60 feet; in others, up to ten percent of the population lost their lives.

In March 2015 there was huge excitement as UN Member States agreed on the first of the three core 2030 development agendas - the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR).

Ahlem Özdemir is a talented seamstress living in the multicultural community of Moerwijk, a diverse neighbourhood near The Hague, Netherlands.  For the past 10 years, she has spent two days a week teaching migrant women how to make and alter clothes. Last year, she won the 'Hero of The Hague' award in the Culture category for her work. 

This video takes us to the different steps of the 2018 State of the World's Volunteerism Report research process.

"If there were no volunteers" is a video poem composed by Ephron Gausi, a UN volunteer researcher for the 2018 State of the World's Volunteerism Report.