Growing up in the Basque Country, a region where terrorism has existed and posed a threat to my family’s wellbeing, I developed tolerance, observation and listening abilities that have proven extremely helpful while volunteering in Haiti. I remember when the UNV recruiter insisted on warning me about Haiti’s unpredictable security situation and saying I would probably work in difficult living conditions. My response was clear: "I am not scared of anything. There is no country in the world I wouldn’t go to in order to help the UN with its mission."

Hudoykul grew up in Urgut district in the Samarkand region of Uzbekistan. He said that as a child, he learned to always put in that “extra effort” to “fit in” so that others would accept him. And he did fit in – excelling at most subjects in national and international law at university. 

Rita Chiara Mele, UN Volunteer Energy Specialist, UNDP Comoros In Small Islands Development States (SIDS) like Comoros, gender and climate change are deeply interconnected. For instance, in the clean cooking sector, women have limited access to modern cooking services and still use traditional biofuels such as firewood, which cause deforestation and increase community vulnerability to climate change. 

Natalie Ismail is a UN Youth Volunteer serving as Youth Engagement and Water Scarcity Support Officer with UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa, based in Amman, Jordan. She is the focal point for participatory action research in the region. Through this role, Natalie raises awareness and builds the capacity of young people for climate-related issues.

With the main responsibility of assisting the Public Health Officer in the development and implementation of COVID-19 response programme, I learned that volunteering does not entail only performing your assigned duties, but to providing support to all spheres of the organization mainly the Global Fund Project Management Unit.

Youth-led organizations consider youth issues a crosscutting theme in sustainable development. One example is UNDP Nepal’s My Way, Green Way campaign.  Campaign organizers distribute bicycles to young girls in various parts of Nepal to provide easy and independent transport to and from school. A mobile application has also been launched that incentivizes bicycle use per kilometer. 

Siphra Jane Tampubolon is a Health Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Specialist and serves as a National UN Volunteer with UNDP Indonesia. She is with the Health Governance Initiative (HEART) since 1 August 2021 up until July 2022. 

Long thought of as a place of natural beauty and biodiversity, Madagascar is experiencing environmental destruction like never before.

The underrepresentation of women in the digital technology industry is not a new topic. This often occurs due to an over-competitive and male-dominant system, lack of female role models and unclear career prospects for those interested. One of the talented women data scientists who overcame all those challenges is Ozge Ozkaya, a national UN Volunteer in Turkey. Ozge serves as a Junior Data Science Officer at the SDG AI Lab in pursuit of digital transformation to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.