by John Kluempers

12 February 2007

Bonn, Germany: The World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme have a new partnership agreement that commits each organization to support each other’s field activities in celebrating IVD and Walk the World against Hunger. The partnership was launched with joint activities to celebrate International Volunteer Day (IVD) on 5 December 2006 in countries around the world. WFP staff and volunteers, as well as UNV volunteers working for WFP took up the IVD challenge – under a variety of circumstances.

“The current security situation in Afghanistan makes it difficult to organize volunteer activities,” says Monica Exelrud Villarindo, United Nations Volunteers program officer in Kabul. “One area where the international community is extremely active is assisting orphanages. That’s why it was so satisfying at how wholeheartedly the whole UN staff responded by providing clothing, sporting goods and, extremely important before the onset of winter, heaters for the children.”WFP-UNV volunteers took the lead in collecting the donations, calling on over 6,000 UN staff currently stationed in Afghanistan to contribute in the weeks before IVD 2006. There was no doubt about just how grateful the children were for the donations they received. 

“Some orphans spoke quite emotionally about these donations and greatly admire how the UN Agencies are thinking to help them,” said WFP-UNV volunteer Ahmed Jama in the northern Afghan city of Mazar.  

Abdul Wadoud is a perfect example. A fatherless boy of nine years who wants to be a teacher when he’s an adult, he walks more than three kilometres to his school. Until recently he had to start that journey almost every day, if he was able to make the trip at all because of lack of energy, with little or no breakfast. Now, WFP is providing him with a daily food package for school, supplying him, as Abdul puts it, “with the energy to be punctual”. 

Yet hunger and general food security remain serious problems for most of the 23.8 million Afghans according to volunteer Jama, a Canadian citizen of Somali descent. Proper nutrition is a problem for some 800 million people around the world, and it is exactly this problem that Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG) is addressing - the eradicaton of hunger and poverty around the world by one half by 2015. 

One way that UNV is working with others toward reaching this MDG Goal is by enhancing local income-generating activities. Siro Álvaro Mahoche, a UNV volunteer with WFP in Mozambique, took IVD as an occasion to organize an agricultural fair. Farmers and vendors from the southern district of Matutuine came to the fair. 

“There was a great deal of interest not only by farmers, but the District Administrator and district agricultural officials attended as well,” said WFP’s Mahoche. “The growers’ products received exposure but it was also important because they could exchange their experiences with each other and the district officials.”

WFP’s work in Mozambique on IVD extended beyond MDG 1. In the city of Gaza in the district of Combomune, national UNV volunteer Pedro Maunde organized an HIV/AIDS workshop. There, many people such as teachers, police officers, nurses and community leaders participated and gained valuable information about HIV/AIDS.  

In the spirit of IVD, Maunde also emphasized just how important volunteerism and community participation are in local development. 

In Sofala in the district of Chimoio, Themba Luciano Sambane mobilized more than 60 volunteers to clean the local hospital. It also gave Sambane the chance to impart the message of how great a role volunteerism can play in the community. 

Afghanistan and Mozambique are just a few examples of activities that WFP engaged with UNV in ‘volunteerism for development’ or ‘V4D’. Through voluntary efforts aimed at strengthening local capacities such as building a local knowledge base, developing social entrepreneurship and solidarity, as well as advocating values such as sharing, self-help and unity, the challenges of the MDGs can be achieved. 

In 2007, UNV is encouraging volunteers to work together with WFP in what is quickly becoming the world’s largest humanitarian event, Fight Hunger: Walk the World. On May 13 WFP expects over one million people to take part and volunteers from all around the world will be active. If you are interested in combating hunger, you can find more details at www.fighthunger.org.