Systems for the social and legal protection of children in Sierra Leone are generally weak, under-resourced and poorly coordinated. These child protection challenges are often exacerbated in emergency situations.

By far the best part of my job is meeting volunteers. On Wednesday, I met Joseph. He is from Nigeria and a volunteer in Sierra Leone, as part of the Economic Commission of West African states (ECOWAS) Volunteer Programme (EVP), the first regional Volunteer scheme in the world. Joseph Uzaka Munoye is a basic Science teacher at the oldest secondary school in the country, called Anna Walsh, since September 2017. He didn’t hide his appreciation that the joint ECOWAS-UNV team was paying him a courtesy visit to see how his assignment was going.

At the scenes of the mudslides and flash floods that killed over 500 people and displaced approximately 6000 others, volunteers played amazingly important roles in very many ways. According to Pieter Peters*, a resident of the downstream Kamayama community, rescuing people that were being washed away as well as recovering the dead from the gushing streams was frightening, but, he says, it had to be done. “We pulled both living and dead people from the flood waters in large numbers.”

The most severe mudslides – triggered by three days of heavy rains – occurred in the coastal suburb of Racecourse on the city’s eastern edge, as well as in Regent and Lumley where thousands of makeshift settlements are home to the city’s poorest communities. Response teams, including dozens of Sierra Leone Red Cross (SLRCS) volunteers recovered people from the mud and debris, helping evacuate residents, transferring bodies to morgues and providing medical care to the injured.

Over the past eighteen months, I worked alongside the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) as Youth Affairs Officer for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sierra Leone. My primary objectives are the improvement of livelihoods and psychological wellbeing for the 1,300 people who served in the safe and dignified burial teams (SDB) of the Ebola response.

Chantal Raharimalala is from Madagascar. Since July 2012, she has been working in Toulepleu, not far from the border between Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia. It's her fourth posting as a UN Volunteer in Côte d'Ivoire, where she has been serving since 2007. Her career, which has evolved in parallel to the country's political situation, is a perfect example of the multiple facets and responsibilities of UN Volunteers who work for peacebuilding and democracy.

In the frame of the UN Days, former ONUCI days for peace, reconciliation and social cohesion in Côte d’Ivoire, from 16 to 18 January the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme Field Unit held a healthiness operation at the General Hospital of Lakota, conducted by UNV Programme Manager Mr Jacques Mouaya. “The main entrance of the hospital looked more like a garbage can than anything else because of the proximity of the city market, which you have to cross before reaching the hospital premises”, said Abou Seidou, UN Volunteer for ONUCI.

United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme Manager Jacques Mouaya met a few days ago some Youth Scouts of the African sub-region at the 8th Youth Forum of the West African Scout Movement at the Ivory Coast Scout headquarters, Treichville.

At the end of March 2011 in Côte d’Ivoire, Alessane Outtara’s forces advanced to the capital, Abidjan. Laurent Gbagbo remained in the presidential palace and refused to give up power, and citizens fled to find safety in neighbouring Liberia, Ghana and Guinea.  At the same time, two UN Volunteers who had been stationed in Liberia came to help the people of Côte d’Ivoire. Dr. Mahesh Babu Pullukollu and nurse Florence Najula Ojwang had never been in a situation like this before.