by Youssef Jai

06 April 2009

Goz Beida, Chad: I will always remember 4 July 2008 when my dream came true… the UNV Programme Officer was telling me over the phone that I had been selected to join the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) as a UNV volunteer Human Rights Officer.

I was in Morocco, where I’m from, and a few days later I flew to N’Djamena to check in for this extraordinary journey.

Eastern Chad is a very challenging environment and witnessing the genesis of MINURCAT has been a fascinating and sometimes complicated experience. In the Goz Beida area where 120,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 30,000 refugees live, I monitor the human rights situation and investigate, document, and report cases of human rights violations and abuses with the view to ending impunity.

At the forefront of field work, I visit prisons and hospitals, engage with local authorities to make sure human rights standards are respected, coordinate and share information with relevant partners, and hear stories from voiceless victims in many different IDP sites and refugee camps. These are the activities which make my days so special and, hopefully, my contribution lasting.

Why was becoming a UNV volunteer such an achievement? I had the chance to be raised in a comfortable environment in a peaceful country. I’ve been receiving so much from others, family members, friends, classmates, colleagues... Giving time and energy to help the forgotten and vulnerable was clearly a moral obligation and a source of justice.

It is not a one-way commitment though. Volunteering is also highly rewarding. I have learnt so much about people, the UN, Africa…The impact of our work may not be immediate and visible, but people have respect for it and view it as exemplary - and sometimes strange… we foreigners giving up their easy lives to come and assist them.