A recent UNHCR Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) workshop in Nairobi, attended by delegates from Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan discussed the incidence and impacts of harmful cultural traditions practised on women. Read

When one mentions the name of the world’s newest state, Timor-Leste, the one thing that immediately comes to mind is the civil strife that engulfed the country in 1999, as the people chose independence. The unrest has left behind deep scars, not just physically, but also on people’s souls. Timor-Leste, like most post-conflict states, faces enormous social, economic and political challenges. As the people face these challenges a bright ray of hope shines across the country.
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The thirty or so Somali women and girls gathered near the Holl-Holl camp community garden, where visitors routinely leave with armfuls of papayas and mangoes, cannot read or interpret a map of their native country, Somalia. Read

“When I first came here I fell in love with the place. I thought it would be tough though. I searched in Google for Apartadó, and it did not exist”. Read

When I was selected to be a UN Volunteer to serve in Kosovo, I had a great deal of curiosity, fear, and uncertainty. I had never heard of UNV and couldn’t imagine what it exactly meant. Read

After various stints working in development in Italy, Bolivia, and Nepal, Andrea Ferrari-Bravo was recruited in September 2001 to launch the UN Volunteers (UNV) programme in Albania. Today, 28 UN Volunteers support the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) activities aimed at promoting democratic governance and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) social reintegration initiatives. Read

Artashes Melikyan, an Armenian, has been based in Kazakhstan for the past three years as a UN Volunteer and human rights specialist. He is part of a global network of 17 UN Volunteers under the Human Rights Strengthening Programme (HURIST), a joint initiative of UNDP and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to mainstream human rights into the development programming of UN agencies and civil society organizations. Read

Tammy Foote, a registered Occupational Therapist (OT) co-sponsored by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and Peace Corps, works in disaster relief and capacity-building on the small, highly volcanic island of Montserrat. Located in the Leeward Island Chain of the Lesser Antilles between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, Montserrat is an overseas territory of the UK, with a self-governing system with locally-elected officials. Read

Joel Maranhao is a UN Volunteer and software engineer attached to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory in the Caribbean. His daily work involves such activities as maintaining computers that acquire and process seismic data, improving alarm and monitoring systems and delving into databases. For a computer expert, it all sounds routine. But he works in the shadow of an active volcano. This the real story, from his perspective. Read

Christiana Cipollini from Italy serves as a UN Volunteer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Cairo. All day long she listens to people tell moving stories of their experiences. Read