04 December 2009

Bonn, Germany: Annual awards include special prize for 'Volunteering for our Planet'

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme today announced the winners of the "Online Volunteering Award 2009", honouring the 'outstanding' contributions of volunteers who work entirely over the internet to contribute to peace and development by helping non-profit development organizations. The awards are an initiative of the UNV Online Volunteering service.

Supporting 'Volunteering for our Planet', the UNV theme for International Volunteer Day (IVD) on 5 December, a special award honoured the efforts of online volunteers to support community adaptation and innovation and help mitigate environmental issues.

A jury of experts in volunteerism and development cooperation chose the winners based on their commitment and contributions, the results of their collaboration and their impact on the activities of the organizations they supported. The jury included Mr. Nicolas Alipui, Director of Programmes at UNICEF, Mr. Mauro Massoni, the Head of the Multilateral Office of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mr. Taras Tymchuk, Programme Coordinator of the GURT Resource Center for NGO Development, Ukraine, as well as UNV representatives from country offices and headquarters.

The winners of the Online Volunteering Award 2009 are:

Adriana Palacios
Thanks to online volunteer Adriana Palacios, over 600 organizations from more than 80 countries have gained access to the educational materials and resources developed by Working To Empower, a Canadian youth-led NGO that supports local community responses to HIV/AIDS.

Aìda Ramos, Charles Essie Okoko, Christian Farin, Irena Kotarska, Khalid Ahmad, Liora Engel-Smith, Molombe Sammah Mbua, Nicolas López, Rania Zabaneh, Sabine Juli, Sara Gomes, Sathish Kumar, Snezana Andric, Yomna Yasser
This team of 13 online volunteers translated the film 'Life's Roulette', written, acted and filmed by former child soldiers in Colombia, in collaboration with the NGO Shine A Light. They produced translations in nine languages including Pashto, Tamil, Serbian, Arabic and Hebrew. Today, hundreds of NGOs worldwide are using the film in their peace building work.

Aisha Aisha Mian, Jennifer Wells, Kalloimora Bzepam, Katie Simons, Laura Gamboa-Cavazos, Laura Riveni, Loai Farajallah, Paula Ellinger da Fonseca, Sehrish Rashid, Yvonne Nelson
A team of 10 online volunteers helped Grace Association of Pakistan to improve the quality of life of marginalized and vulnerable communities in less developed parts of Northern Pakistan.

Anne Ames, Dinnah Santos, Lisa Biasillo, Robert Gerstein, Tiffany Shaw-Diaz, Vy Nguyen
Sharing their diverse expertise, this team of six online volunteers helped advance the Kitega Community Centre’s project of establishing a health care centre in the village of Kitega, Uganda, to provide low-cost medical services to the rural community.

Anne Marine Boubennec, Brigit Kann, Daniel Sturby, Hippolyt Fogaing, Karine Duval, Lee Knaggsi, Meiry Matsuda, Ruth Keene, Stéphanie Di Sano, Tanya Brown
By supporting the design of a Knowledge Centre for Development that will foster the promotion of science and technology in African development and by developing a new website, these 10 online volunteers have made critical contributions to the work of the Cameroonian NGO Engineers Without Borders.

Ayesha Zaheer
Online volunteer Ayesha Zaheer has been instrumental in shaping the visual communication of Grace Foundation in Nigeria, which also contributed to a successful fundraising campaign. The graphic designer based from Pakistan has designed a wide range of communication materials for Grace, which works to empower communities through the promotion of self-sufficiency of underprivileged and low-income families.

Chelsea Wyatt, Daniela Georgieva, Haddy Sarr, Kwame van Eijndhoven, Laurene Graziani, Stella Mihailova, Tizeta Getaneh, Wei Wang
These eight online volunteers helped Young People We Care, a youth-led NGO based in Ghana, to develop a strategic proposal to address youth migration issues and involve youth in international dialogues and decision-making processes.

Loai Farajallah
Online volunteer Loai Farajallah of Jordan has been providing continuous support to the NGO Teach A Man To Fish (TAMTF) by building data management systems that facilitate knowledge sharing amongst a growing network. TAMTF is a British NGO that supports schools in developing countries to increase their financial self-sufficiency, combining class-based lessons with student-run businesses.

Prajwal Baral
Online volunteer Prajwal Baral attracted people to run in the Sunfeast World 10K Bangalore Marathon 2009, to raise funds for the Indian NGO New Life. Coordinating an effective internet marketing campaign, Prajwal helped New Life raise awareness and a considerable amount of new funds for its projects such as medical assistance to children with disabilities and early learning centres for the children of vulnerable groups.  

Special 'Volunteering For our Planet' Award
Aline De Leener, Amandine Hourt, Andrea Rudin Montes de Oca, Hippolyt Fogaing, Jean Bosco Utuba, Kayergué Koulibaly, Tony Kouteh
Seven online volunteers, experts in electrical engineering, life sciences and international commerce, helped the Benin-based NGO Africavenir address the contamination of groundwater and the emission of greenhouse gases and odours through pig breeding, while at the same time producing environmentally-friendly electricity from a renewable energy source.

Congratulating the winners, UNV Executive Coordinator Flavia Pansieri commended the online volunteers' outstanding contributions. "The purpose of this award is to recognize online volunteers' contributions to peace and development, to showcase the many ways in which online volunteers can strengthen the capacities of development organizations and to demonstrate the difference volunteers can make to development projects by sharing their time, skills and expertise over the internet," she said.

With a view to UNV's theme for this year's International Volunteer Day, Volunteering for our Planet, Ms. Pansieri emphasized that "online volunteering is a way to support development projects around the world in a carbon-neutral way".

In 2009 alone, the UNV Online Volunteering service helped development organizations worldwide to engage more than 6,000 online volunteers.

Kitega Community Centre public relations officer David Clemy said, "We developed a long-term relationship with the volunteers, who continue to contribute in different ways. Our exchange with these volunteers has inspired us and brought us many new ideas to serve the community".

The winners’ stories are available on the UNV Online Volunteering service website: www.onlinevolunteering.org

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that promotes volunteerism to support peace and development worldwide. Volunteerism can transform the pace and nature of development, and it benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer. UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for volunteerism globally, encouraging partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing volunteers.

The International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development (International Volunteer Day) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution A/RES/40/212 on 17 December 1985.  Since then, governments, the UN system and civil society organizations have successfully joined volunteers around the world to celebrate the Day on 5 December. Learn more at www.worldvolunteerweb.org

Further details of the UNV theme for International Volunteer Day 2009, 'Volunteering for our Planet' are available at the campaign website: www.VolunteeringForOurPlanet.org