Bonn, Germany: Working with local volunteers in the Andean and Amazon regions, Jose Carlo Burga, a Peruvian UNVolunteer, has sparked renewed interest in local culture and human rights. Young indigenous volunteers, who rarely communicate in their mother tongues in this Spanishspeaking society, found themselves working closely with village elders, rediscovering the value of their language and gaining an understanding of their rights. With UNDP's assistance, they translated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into eight indigenous languages. Read

Twenty-one UN Volunteers are currently serving in Somalia, bringing a wide range of skills in air traffic control, civil engineering, human rights, livestock and agriculture, gender, ports management, rescue operations, fire fighting and food supply. Read

Bonn, Germany: For older people the ageing process is generally accompanied by a transition in social and economic roles. In some societies, people move from full-time, formal work to retirement, in others into part-time work of an informal nature. This transition is often treated, erroneously, as a move from a productive role to a non-productive or dependent one. Read

Freetown, Sierra Leone: UN Volunteers began arriving in Sierra Leone over the weekend to help prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections slated for May. Read

Bonn, Germany: Laurie Moy, of McKinney, Texas, U.S.A., first began online volunteering through NetAid in March 2000. She is now the Coordinator of Volunteers for People With Disabilities, Uganda (PWDU), overseeing the work of more than 75 other online volunteers from all over the world. Here is her report after visiting her online assignment, on-site. Read

Quito, Ecuador: Japanese UN Volunteer Daizen Oda has been formally recognized for his role in a working group that has chosen winners of the Betinho Prize, an award given out annually in Ecuador by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) in the field of information and communication technologies for development. Read

Three weeks ago a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon shook the world. Since then we have struggled to come to grips with images of devastation, suffering and grief which will forever be engraved on our collective memory. But there are also other images that permeate this tragedy, like a shaft of light: the sight of the volunteers who rushed to places of destruction to offer their help. Read

Bonn, Germany: Many of the 123 National Committees and partner organizations for the International Year of Volunteers (IYV) 2001 will commemorate the role of volunteer advocates striving for indigenous human rights on this, the seventh International Day of the World's Indigenous People. Read

Bonn, Germany: The United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) has received a donation of US$100,000 from its Honorary Ambassador, Mr. Takehito Nakata of Japan, for its work in the area of human security. Read

Bonn, Germany: UNVs helped governments put the rights of children and young people onto their agendas. Read