english |  français |  español View RSS feedWhat is RSS?  Home  |  Contact us  |  FAQs  |  Search  |  Sitemap  |  UNDP Information Disclosure Policy
 
Volunteer Voices
UNV youth volunteers welcomed at Czech Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Seven young Czech nationals are being funded by the Czech Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to serve in the UNV Internship Programme and met with Ministry officials before their deployment. In front of Czernin Palais in Prague (from left) are Iva Ulmanova (assigned to UN Women Kosovo), Jan Naplava (serving at UNAIDS Cambodia), Dana Siedemova (assigned to UNEP Ethiopia), Eva Bazingerova (assigned to UNICEF Vietnam), Vera Hozova (with the UNV Contact Center in Prague), Jiri Matousek (serving at UNDP Kosovo), Veronika Jemelikova (assigned to UNV Cambodia), Vladislava Splichalova (UNV Contact Center in Prague), and Marketa Stodolova (assigned to IOM Bosnia and Herzegovina). (Photo: UNV Contact Center in Prague, 2013)
In January, the seven Czech youth volunteers selected to serve in the UNV Internship Programme met Tomáš Dub, their country's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, who expressed his belief in their work and UNV's mission. The volunteers, funded by the Czech Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are being deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Kosovo, Nigeria and Vietnam. Read
More about: Youth
Countries:  Czech Republic
Other languages: en français  en español  
You are here:  Home > How to volunteer > What it means to be a UN Volunteer
What it means to be a UN Volunteer
UNV volunteer Fanta Nifaboum demonstrates that life in Chad requires resilience and ingenuity. (UNV)
The decision to serve as a UN Volunteer, at home or abroad, is based on a commitment to the United Nations and to the UN’s contribution to peace, development and human rights in support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

As a UN Volunteer you have the extraordinary opportunity to create beneficial change and have a positive impact on people's lives. Even if your UNV assignment is fairly short, it can have a long-term impact and achieve a ripple effect that extends far beyond the immediate beneficiaries of your efforts.

Your role as a UN Volunteer is that of both facilitator and catalyst. UNV encourages you to be creative and entrepreneurial in finding ways to develop capacity and to promote and foster volunteerism for peace and development - both within and beyond the formal framework of your assignment.

Ultimately, if development is to be effective and sustainable, the people affected by it must take ownership of its processes and drive them forward. Indeed, the MDGs can only be reached if millions of people around the world voluntarily mobilize to achieve them. Your actions as a UN Volunteer can also inspire others to volunteer and to believe that they too can make a contribution towards peace and development.

UN Volunteers come from around 160 countries and many more cultural backgrounds, and thanks to this wide variety of perspectives they bring a range of experiences, expectations and approaches. This diversity gives their work a particular dynamism.

UN Volunteers are thus part of a global, cumulative effort that integrates volunteerism as a core contribution to peace and development: and the concept of volunteerism for peace and development  is at the core of UNV’s mission.

  Print page
UNV is administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)