by Anna Klissouras

09 January 2007

Bonn, Germany: In 2006, over 7,500 UNV volunteers supported communities, non-governmental and civil society organizations as well as governments all over the world to foster sustainable development. In more than 140 countries, UNV volunteers, the majority of whom hail from developing countries themselves, worked in key areas such as poverty reduction, crisis recovery, elections support, governance and HIV/AIDS.

One highlight happened in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where some 800 UNV volunteers worked with the UN mission MONUC, constituting the largest peacekeeping operation for UNV. Hundreds of UNV volunteers supported both rounds of the presidential elections in July and October. The elections were a historical event for DR Congo, whose citizens did not have the privilege to vote for 46 years.
UNV volunteers were an indispensable help for preparing and rolling-out the elections. In the country the size of Western Europe, they helped register some 26 million at an estimated 9,000 registration centres and encouraged full participation of the registered voters, virtually none of them having any voting experience.

Another example for UNV’s elections support comes from Haiti. For the Caribbean state, 2006 was an outstanding year with the presidential, legislative, local and municipal elections taking place. About 190 volunteers helped in preparing and rolling out the elections. Especially UNV volunteers from the Electoral and Civil Affairs Section contributed crucially to the success of this process. Among other activities, they deployed voting kits and sensitive material like ballots and tally sheets to each of the 9,231 polling stations across the country. Particularly in the rural and remote regions of Haiti, the volunteer’s logistical support was of high importance due to the country’s poor infrastructure.

One of the year’s highlights for UNV in Kyrgyzstan was the “I Volunteer” Youth Campaign, promoted by the UNV Youth Project. The 6 week campaign started on Global Youth Service Day, 21 April, with the aim to promote the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and strengthen the Youth Volunteer Network through inter-regional volunteer exchanges. Events and voluntary activities took place across all seven provinces of the Kyrgyz Republic and particularly focused on prevention of HIV / AIDS, environmental projects and support for disadvantaged children. Volunteers linked the volunteer actions in the different districts by carrying a flag from one province to the other. Eventually, the flag was handed to the Deputy Minister of Education.
Each leg of the journey linked north and south, crossing the high mountain range which divides the country, enabling contact and collaboration between youth who normally do not have a chance to meet.
Pleased with the success of the campaign, Hugh Salmon, UNV Programme Officer, says: “The ‘I volunteer’ campaign became a platform for uniting young people from cities and remote and diverse parts of the country. As the campaign unfolded, it gained a momentum of its own, with more and more groups of local volunteers registering on the web portal www.jashtar.kg, in order to join in local events and receive information on future volunteer opportunities such as volunteer work camps and volunteer exchange programmes.”

UNV in East Timor is celebrating the approval of the National UNV scheme as a major success of the year 2006. As UNV Programme Officer Rafiqul Haider believes, the use of mixed teams of international and national volunteers will enhance national capacity and human resource development by strengthening the pool of expertise and knowledge. So far, only international volunteers had worked with UNV.
Enthusiastically he points to the support UNV received from the state and other organizations: "The Government of Timor-Leste, UN agencies and NGOs recognize the valuable contribution of  the UNV volunteers and proactively participated in celebrating International Volunteer Day. The Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, Acting Special  Representative of UN Secretary General and many senior UN, Government and  NGO officials participated in a volunteers' get-together and highly appreciated volunteers' contributions in Timor-Leste."

The last example comes from Viet Nam, where UNV, in partnership with the Vietnam Women’s Union, implemented an important project for the Greater Involvement of People Living with or Affected by HIV/AIDS (GIPA) in four districts of the country.
A team of 11 UNV volunteers, some of whom are infected themselves, have trained over 260 PLHIV (People Living with HIV/AIDS) on the virus, home care, the fight again stigma and discrimination, presentation skills, and group management. More than 700 PLHIV were provided with HIV/AIDS information and referred to HIV/AIDS services, and four clubs run by affected women were found in the provinces. The community volunteer groups offer opportunities for voluntary participation of PLHIV in HIV/AIDS activities. UNV country office assistant and project focal point Dang Phuong Lan underlines the most significant aspect of the programme: “Most importantly, the Women’s Union/GIPA project has the potential to ensure that PHIV do become 'true' agents of change in the fight against stigma and discrimination, and provides a platform where PLHIV voices can be heard.”

These few examples merely provide a glimpse of UNV volunteers’ contributions to development in 2006 and cannot do justice to all of the thousands of vounteers supporting communities, organizations and governments in impacting projects on a daily basis.
Lastly, beyond UNV volunteers' engagement in the field, about 2.000 online volunteers, connected to development-focused organizations via UNV’s Online Volunteering service, have provided technical expertise, facilitated communication, or supported organizations' project and knowledge management over the Internet.

To learn more about UNV’s activities in 2006, read the News section.