Lydie Nodjimadjim Mbaidje is a senior midwife and UN Volunteer serving with UNFPA In the heart of Logone, a province located in the south-west of Chad. Her contribution pivots around the crucial aspects of health education and awareness. She supervises midwives, and trains the local population on contraceptives and emergency neonatal obstetric care.

With approximately 1,3 million population, Timor-Leste has made milestones in ending violence against women and girls and intimate partner violence. More than 75 per cent of the population under 35 and more than half of the youth live in rural areas and have been unable to shift the high tolerance for men’s perpetration of violence against women.

In 2022, UN Women conducted an ethnographic review of harmful social norms and practices and support for mass advocacy initiatives to prevent violence against women and girls in the country. This mapped both harmful and positive practices, attitudes and behaviours that influence violence against women and girls.

What did your day-to-day work at UNFPA Madagascar entail? 

The volunteering opportunities were with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Human Rights (OHCHR), UN Women and UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). They aim at building the women UN Volunteers capacities, while raising their awareness of gender and protection concepts. They also promoted their participation in recovery efforts and increased their resilience, particularly as many were affected by the May 2021 escalation in Gaza.

Fatima-Zahra has been a volunteer for the civil society since 2008. After she began her UN Volunteer assignment, she wanted to connect with people especially youth, women and girls who benefit from UNFPA initiatives. In her role, she documents stories centering on issues of stigma and reasons that prevent women, girls, and youth from fulfilling their potential such as child marriage, early pregnancy, maternal death, and gender-based violence.

In Asia Pacific, Spotlight focuses on domestic violence and intimate partner violence. UNFPA and Pacific Community conducted Family Health and Safety Studies across 11 Pacific countries.

Nabin supports refugees through durable solutions and community-based protection. This includes counseling refugees, and serving in areas of child protection and prevention, and gender-based violence.  My innate passion for serving displaced people, particularly refugees, motivated me to work in this area and to be a UN Volunteer,” says Nabin.

Daniel Valbuena

Heather's experience with domestic violence extended beyond the home; Heather recalls having a close encounter with a male relative who tried to force himself on her. She also witnessed other women in her community being abused by their male partners. These memories from her childhood and adolescence stayed with her, and she often wondered how many women were suffering in silence.