In 1996, Kyrgyzstan was the last country in the world to be removed from the World Health Organization’s list of countries considered HIV free. Read

The value of volunteering, in economic and social terms, has long been recognized and championed in the North. The importance of such volunteering in the South, in particular by people in their own communities, however, has only started to be more widely understood and recognized since the International Year of Volunteers (IYV) 2001. Read

Imagine an organization serving street children in Latin America that involves dozens of volunteers from all over the world – but never meets the volunteers in-person. These volunteers engage in on-line advocacy campaigns for the organization, produce web pages and translate materials in Spanish and English, all without ever leaving their homes. Read

More than 250 people die in May 2003 as a result of Sri Lanka's worst flooding in 50 years. In April 2003, high winds destroy 1, 350 houses and a bridge serving the 4,900 people living in India’s north-eastern Assam region.On 16 January 2001, UN Volunteers are among the first relief workers to assist victims after an earthquake shook the Caribbean region just two days earlier. Read

In Afghanistan, there is a long and bumpy road leading from survival to a strong, secure society. Decades of war and civil strife have left a legacy of fear and suffering. Many victims are left without homes or a means to make a living. Against all odds, Afghans are starting again. Teaming up with a range of partners, UN Volunteers are stepping in to help. Read

For generations, the coastal communities in East Timor have relied on a wide range of fish - large tuna, flying fish, coral reef fish and deepwater snappers which abound along the 600 kilometres of East Timor's coastline - for their livelihoods. Ninety per cent of the East Timorese coastal fleet, fishing gear and on-shore infrastructure was destroyed during the violent fighting that broke out between opponents and supporters of independence after an overwhelming majority of East Timorese had voted for sovereignty in the UN-organized Popular Consultation Ballot held on 30 August 1999. Thousands of people fled the territory. Read

Brazil shows an unbelievable increase in the number of people involved in social activities on a voluntary basis. This boom of voluntary work in recent decades makes us think that the major challenge for the Government is to strengthen, organize and integrate this gigantic force into a project to build a fairer society. Read

In June 1973, a young Ecuadorian student attracted through the activity report of the new United Nations Volunteers (UNV), set off in January 1974 as the second UN Volunteer to ever serve in Sudan. Read

In more than 100 countries around the world-from Mongolia to Mali, from Brazil to Belgium-volunteers have come together on 5 December to celebrate and to reconfirm these ideals, like the 40,000 volunteers in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, who signed a banner and made a commitment to keep their city clean. Read

A Chinese proverb says: "Teach thy neighbour everything you know yourself". This is what Gérard Guillerm, a French information technology (IT) specialist and UN Volunteer in Kyrgyzstan practices every day. Read

Five years after the Women’s World conference in Beijing, the UN General Assembly in a special session takes stock — and so does UNV. This issue of UNVNews gives an impression of the work currently undertaken. Read

The United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) has recruited and deployed more than 60 volunteer specialists to take up a range of assignments providing services to the recently established United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). Read

The beginning of a new millennium is reason enough to pause and take stock. As UNV approaches the year 2000, more than 20,000 UN Volunteers have supported efforts for peace and development worldwide. This was not necessarily predictable when the first 35 UNV pioneers were fielded in 1971. Read

In 1993, more than 4,000 UNVs have supported electoral registration, supervision, monitoring and logistics. In 1999 alone, UNVs assisted with the elections in Nigeria, Indonesia, South Africa, Nepal, Central African Republic and soon, Mozambique. Read

UNVNews starts with a "Thank You!" from the editorial team to all the UN Volunteers who contribute with personal accounts of their experiences, with articles and photos, thus enabling us to keep you abreast of new developments. Read

Volunteers are young, in their teens or twenties - so says the man in the street. The average age of volunteers assigned abroad by the main bilateral programmes is well up in the thirties: today's UN Volunteers average 39. While talking of age, we might remember that 1999 is the International Year of Older Persons. Can we reconcile those two situations? It's but one of many topics for discussion in IYV 2001: that maybe, just as adults of all ages have something useful to contribute as volunteers within their own societies, so it should be internationally, across frontiers. Read

In time of disaster volunteers do what they have to do. Like the UNV in Nicaragua who has refused to be helicoptered to safety and insists she stay on to help. Like the Programme Officer in Honduras who has diverted his entire team to emergency relief and spent up his discretionary fund on having thirty national UNVs inventory shelters and oversee food distribution. Read

Twenty years back, the Buenos Aires Plan of Action called on the developing countries to "create, acquire, adapt, transfer and pool knowledge and experience for their mutual benefit and for achieving mutual and collective self-reliance". Read

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is fifty years old. In the preamble to its thirty articles, it notes the reaffirmation of "faith in fundamental human rights" outlined in the United Nations Charter. Read

UNV has turned a corner. The statistics for 1997 show that the plateau of the previous two years - years largely dominated by planning and carrying through the move of headquarters - has given way to resumed growth. Read