This is also Armenia’s first time hosting the UN biodiversity conference. The decision to hold COP17 in Yerevan was taken at COP16 in Cali, Colombia, where more than 800 UN Volunteers supported the conference.

For many people, working overseas brings images of exciting projects, international travel, and new opportunities. For Rose, it also meant arriving in a country where she could barely understand the conversations happening around her. 

Panyijiar is the southernmost county in Unity State, sitting on its lowest ground, so flights there are often cancelled due to changing weather conditions. But the concerns facing its communities do not pause for the weather: people still need to share what they know about security, flooding, and whether aid workers and supplies can get through. When a visiting team cannot travel, relationships become the way in.

Today, as Nepal grapples with devastating floods and landslides, that question feels especially urgent. Thousands of people are facing loss, displacement, and uncertainty. Entire communities are being tested by a crisis that has unfolded with frightening speed.Yet as I followed news of the disaster after returning home, I kept thinking about the UN Volunteers I had met only three weeks earlier.Not because they predicted what was coming. But because they were already supporting communities and livelihoods.