The year 2006 brought to fruition one of Africa’s longest anticipated elections:  for the first time in 45 years the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) took to the polls.  The elections marked a significant step in the peace process in the DRC, which is rebuilding following the end of a six-year civil that cost 4 million lives in fighting, hunger and disease. Read

Lubumbashi, DR Congo : Elections stole the headlines in 2006, but volunteers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are quietly giving back to nature what it had been stripped of in the years before. Read

Bukavu, DR Congo: UNV volunteers Mariya Stoeva and Mohamed Sadiq Ameer are in the Democratic Republic of Congo to ensure that members of MONUC, the UN’s current largest mission, receive safe, quality food. Read

Dennis Mairena, a UNV field officer in Colombia and UNV public information officer Sy Koumbo Singa Gali in the Democratic Republic of Congo talk about how UNV volunteers are in the "different dimension" and "go the extra mile". Read

Bonn, Germany: In 2006, over 7,500 UNV volunteers supported communities, non-governmental and civil society organizations as well as governments all over the world to foster sustainable development. In more than 140 countries, UNV volunteers, the majority of whom hail from developing countries themselves, worked in key areas such as poverty reduction, crisis recovery, elections support, governance and HIV/AIDS. Read

Bonn, Germany: In Goma, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, 300 local volunteers are cleaning and refurbishing markets in Virunga and Kahembe, two densely populated districts affected by poor sanitary conditions. Read

Kinshasa, DRC: Over 2,500 church attendees stood up against poverty with UNV volunteers on Sunday, 15 October. In joining the worldwide STAND UP campaign against poverty, UNV partnered with the Réseau National de la Jeunesse Religieuse, an inter-congregational Congolese organization. Read

Kinshasa, DR Congo: With the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first elections in four decades just days away, UN Volunteers are steadfast in supporting the final preparations for Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary vote. Read

Kinshasa, DR Congo: UNV volunteers attached to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) are advancing preparations for the country’s elections scheduled at the end of July. Read

Bonn, Germany: UNV volunteers represent an impressive force in supporting UN peacekeeping operations, says Ad de Raad, Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, today in a message for the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, 29 May. Read