TOKTEN, or Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals, is an innovative UNV programme that allows expatriates from programme countries to return home for a period ranging from two weeks to three months to contribute their skills and services to their homeland’s development. Read

It is a great honour to be invited to address this National Symposium, to be at this important event alongside such distinguished colleagues and to have the opportunity to share some of my thoughts. I believe it is particularly fitting that we are gathered together at Mogran, the very place where the two Niles meet, converge and flow forward as one. Read

I really enjoyed the traffic congestion today. I just have been trying to arrive to my hotel, it took me more than an hour, a way that uses to take me fifteen minutes, but I really enjoyed it! Read

Darfur, Sudan: Increasing the recognition of and support to volunteers and volunteer involving organizations in helping Sudan meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is the theme of a one-day conference to be held in the capital city on 25 July. Read

Bonn, Germany: As the United Nations commemorates the third International Day of UN Peacekeepers on 29 May, paying tribute to those who serve in peacekeeping operations, United Nations Volunteers (UNV) are also being honoured for their dedication and courage in helping improve the lives of millions of people in war-torn and post-conflict countries across the globe. Read

Darfur, Sudan: Following the UN Security Council’s decision last week to form the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), some 160 United Nations Volunteers (UNVs) will be deployed over the coming months to Sudan to support the peace process in the region. Read

Bonn, Germany: Axel Melinon of France knows the media-labeled Darfur crisis all too well. As one of 23 UN Volunteers currently on the ground in Chad, he spends his days caring for some 15,000 Sudanese refugees that refer to Bahai, a small desert outpost situated along the north-eastern Chad-Sudan border, as their temporary home. Read

Bonn, Germany: Of the 5,000 UN Volunteers on the ground every year, nearly 1,000 work in crisis situations tending to the sick, feeding the hungry and protecting the vulnerable. Living and working in some of the world’s most difficult places, UN Volunteers help the UN and its agencies such as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) address the challenging situations facing those in dire need. Read

Khartoum, Sudan: A team of lawyers mobilized by the Bonn-based United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) in a record three-week period has taken up assignments in five Sudanese cities to help determine the refugee status of some 300,000 Eritreans currently in the country. Read