Salome Margvelashvili, an Online Volunteer, inspired by — tech for social good — Commit Global's mission chose to volunteer through UNV's Online Volunteering Service. "Throughout my academic career, I've maintained a strong focus on understanding the complexities of crisis man

Tetiana Mykytenko serves with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Czechia. She wanted to do something positive even as things looked bleak in her home country, Ukraine. She sought refugee in Czechia and that's when she joined UNHCR as a UN Volunteer Refugee Community-Based Protection Assistant. 

The volunteer organization of the United Nations is United Nations Volunteers, in short – UNV, which provides grassroots-level response in emergencies and local-level support to peace, humanitarian and development initiatives.

  How to Deploy UN Volunteers To start off the recruitment process, UNV only requires a Description of Assignment (DOA – also called  Terms of Reference or TOR) and confirmation of funding. 

In Poland, WHO faced a major challenge with the influx of Ukrainians fleeing war in their home country. Health aid was needed swiftly and in response, WHO recruited 13 UN Volunteers for two years (2022-23) in Poland. These volunteers integrated into the United Nations' response efforts and contributed to providing health services to refugees.

Every action makes a difference. At times, a very small action can have a huge impact. 

When the war started on 24 February 2022, Hanna couldn’t believe this was happening to her country. The conflict was so sudden that nobody, including Hanna, was ready. After she realized the severity of the situation, she volunteered to help others.“It is a great grief when children suffer, when rockets hit residential buildings and not only houses, and at night, when people are sleeping.” Hanna Chepil, UN Community Volunteer with UNDP Moldova

What does your assignment with UNDP mean to you? To me, this assignment is an opportunity where you don't just serve for livelihood, but also to change people's lives as much as you can. I am aware that one person cannot do much, but I am convinced that the change starts within each of us. This is much easier to do when you are part of a team of professionals who share common values. I am fortunate, because both in the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, I have very open-minded colleagues, who helped me to change my mindset.

According to reports, since the war started more than 2.4 million Ukrainians have crossed the border into Romania from Ukraine or Moldova.

I started volunteering and interning throughout my bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of York. I volunteered with the Ukrainian Institute in London and TEDxLondon, among others. It was then that I found an interesting UNV online volunteer assignment with the Accelerator Lab of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, which required a translator for five months.