My short stint as UNV volunteer is probably my way to identify the areas where I could be a key player. 'Key player' does not mean the mission will depend on you all along; instead it just means putting something on the table. I just want to contribute but not to be celebrated as the hero – heroes are just in stories anyways. Read

To be a volunteer means to be a forerunner, somebody who has the courage and takes the risk to provide services and support in very difficult circumstances... I have been part of transforming UN missions, communities and colleagues. Read

It is a great pleasure being a UNV volunteer and contributing to peace in Sudan in the same way as those who volunteered to build peace in my own country. Read

Being a volunteer means serving without conditions, accepting certain sacrifices, and offering unselfishly one's talents to assist and support mission programmes. Read

This was a dream came true... Way back during my boyhood in Kenya, I used to see people building schools, hospitals and so on. Upon enquiry I came to realize they were volunteers, and I would ask myself how I could be one of them. Read

I wear two caps: I have both administrative and technical responsibilities. As the Officer-in-Charge, I am responsible for the daily running of the office... As technical staff, my daily tasking includes performing spatial analyses as part of mission spatial decision support systems. Read

I realized I was making a big difference in my job. Read

If you notice the white gown I wear for my own safety, it is also sponsored by Medical Centre (Star Base) in addition with a lot of lab consumables.  So my team nicknamed me 'Water Doctor'.  Now, I'm the only 'Water Doctor' at UNMIL, and I hope I'll have an opportunity to share and transfer my skills, knowledge and experiences to enlist more.  This is one of my expectations from volunteerism. Read

Thinking of Dr. Martin Luther King's famous speech, I was never in doubt why a single man's dream was strong enough to change the entire world. It was a dream backed with an undying passion... I knew I had a dream too. It was a dream of equal access to safe drinking water and improved public health outcomes for the world's poor. Read

There comes a time in your life that, for personal or professional reasons, you need your work to count more than the number of drunk drivers, or chest pains seen in one hour... When you are on a personal and professional path that includes volunteer work, that path is never complete without the UN, so I volunteered with UNV simply because it made sense. Read