In a society that often lacks trust in young people, it’s much worse for young persons with disabilities. I have a physical disability since I was three years old and started using crutches to walk at the age of twelve.

Mariko Otake is a UN Volunteer Associate Protection Officer with UNHCR in Uganda. Her area of focus is the West Nile region — particularly Adjumani district, which is home to 19 refugee settlements and over 222,000 refugees. Working closely with local government, partners, and refugee community leaders, Mariko makes sure the well-being of refugees is on top of the agenda. She creates sustainable support systems within refugee communities by connecting local community members to refugee-led organizations.

My name is David Ouma and I am a national UN Volunteer Specialist. I serve as Project Management Assistant at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi.  My academic background in Biology and my six-month internship in marine conservation at the Kenyan coast led to this UN Volunteer assignment. 

East and Southern Africa are vulnerable to climate change, food insecurity and water scarcity. These issues have been exacerbated further by rapid population growth, urbanization and overgrazing. Over 36 million people face hunger across East and Southern Africa largely due to drought and high temperatures.

It was during my university years in the United States that I became more aware of the injustice in the world, by meeting students who had lived in poverty or experienced civil wars as a child, and studying about conflicts happening in different regions. Working to help people became my goal. A few years later, I was at the United Nations headquarters explaining and promoting its work to visitors from around the world as Tour Guide. By the time I had joined the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, I was eager to go to the field to work directly with the people.

Zanzibar, Tanzania: As a UN Volunteer working with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Zanzibar, I am involved in activities on sexual and reproductive health, working closely with government institutions. Looking for new innovative methods to raise the awareness of young people is one of the things I have been working on during my assignment with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme. Theatre is a good way to raise awareness of women-related issues.

Julie Lillejord (Norway) is a former UN Volunteer with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).  She currently works as a Gender Policy Junior Professional Officer (JPO) with the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).