Quetta, Pakistan: As a UNV volunteer working in a refugee camp in Quetta, Pakistan, Lynda Lim tries to encourage women to speak up, provide protection and ensure their basic rights are met. And this Malaysian lady "never gives up." Read

Unification Town, Liberia: As Liberia’s civil war raged last decade, violence towards women was disproportionately high. Almost ten years later, UNV volunteers are helping to tackle rising domestic violence. Read

Koukou, Chad: On this International Women’s Day, as the UN calls for an end to violence against women and girls, we relay the remarkable story of UNV volunteer Véronique Derksen of The Netherlands, who is attached to UNHCR in Chad. Having served in the African country for some six months, Ms Derksen has experienced first-hand the suffering of refugees from nearby Sudan. Read the story in French. Read

Pristina, Kosovo: UNV volunteers and others are helping spread the word in Kosovo that International Women’s Day is an important event to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women around the globe – and an opportunity to end violence. Read

Victoria Díaz-García, an Irish Aid sponsored UNV intern and Urs Bernhard, a Swiss sponsored UNV intern, have done the arduous six-day-long trip along Río Coco to provide gender training and technical monitoring to the indigenous Miskitu communities of Raití and Walakitán, two of the most Northeastern communities located in the department of Jinotega. Read

Badakhshan, Afghanistan: When Toshiko Kitahara arrived in Ragh district in Badakhshan province, north-east Afghanistan, two things struck her: its natural beauty and the fact that girls did not attend school. As a UN Volunteer with the World Food Programme (WFP), Toshiko decided to make girls’ education a priority. She started her self-driven campaign to build the first girls’ school in Ragh. Her quest for funds started in Afghanistan and crossed the globe before she arrived at enough money to have the project put in motion. Read

Brasilia, Brazil: In late 2005 UNIFEM and UNV, with support from UNDP, launched a joint programme entitled "Engendering Budgets: Making visible women's voluntary contributions to national development in Latin America". Read

Cairo, Egypt: UNV and UNDP, in partnership with the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM), are working with communities to stop Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Egypt. The joint 'FGM Free Village Model' project discourages the practice by raising awareness of the harmful mental, physical and social side effects of FGM. Read

Gurraidho, Maldives: More than 11,000 Maldivians have had their incomes severely disrupted and are still in immediate need of assistance to get back on their feet following the tsunami. Read

New York, USA/Bonn, Germany: Using gender-responsive budgets to recognize and strengthen women’s role in governance and resource allocation in Latin America is the focus of a new initiative launched by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme. Read