08 July 2002

Bonn, Germany: Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings volunteered his time and commitment as Eminent Person for the United Nations International Year of Volunteers 2001 (IYV 2001). He has been particularly devoted to and involved in campaigns to contain the HIV/AIDS epidemic, particularly in Africa. Rawlings, who had been President of Ghana for 19 years (1981 - 2001) was appointed as Eminent Person in recognition of his efforts to support local community groups and independent volunteer organizations to improve economic and social conditions in Ghana:

To support the nation's economy Mr. Rawlings mobilized and led Ghanaian university students to engage in a National Cocoa Evacuation Exercise in 1982/83. He mobilized university students as volunteers, who went to the rural areas to move harvested cocoa that had been abandoned on the farms as a result of a lack of transport.

With the aim to combat desertification and to move towards sustainable development Mr. Rawlings also launched a volunteer campaign to plant trees. This reforestation-initiative led to the establishment of Ghana's Forest Development Fund.

During his early days as President, Mr. Rawlings also established "Peoples and Workers Defense Committees" - volunteer committees that gave a voice to the needs and priorities of local communities, shared these with regional and national administration, and participated in the supervision and monitoring of development programmes and projects.

In 1984, he helped to rescue victims of a rail accident in Asuoya, a village in eastern Ghana. After the rescue-operation, he spent three days as a volunteer helping to repair the damaged railway line.

In 1993, Mr. Rawlings led the resettlement-process of over one million Ghanaians who returned from Nigeria and volunteered his services on repatriation sites. He was also among the volunteer-pilots who helped to repatriate Ghanaians from Libya in 2000 by aeroplane.

Throughout his presidency Mr. Rawlings launched and proactively supported volunteer-clean-up-campaigns in Ghana's major cities, Accra and Cape Coast.

Rawlings is one of four Eminent Persons who volunteered their services to the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) for the International Year of Volunteers (IYV). Together with H.R.H. Prince of Asturias, D. Felipe de Borbón of Spain; Ms. Anita Roddick, renowned business leader on corporate volunteering, and Dr. Nafis Sadik Special Adviser to the Secretary-General and former Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Rawlings helped to raise the profile of millions of volunteers working for peace and development worldwide.

He was engaged in fighting to contain HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa. He made his first journey to Botswana, where he acknowledged the resources and political resources mobilized by the government in fighting the epidemic. Later on he visited Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Swaziland and Tanzania - delivering powerful speeches on HIV/AIDS prevention to large audiences. As participant to the 3rd United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Brussels, Belgium, Rawlings highlighted the importance of volunteer action in HIV/AIDS response.

Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings was born in Accra on 22 June 1947 to a Ghanaian mother and a Scottish father. He joined the Air Force of Ghana in 1967, and subsequently reached the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He and his wife, Nana, have four children.