20 June is World Refugee Day. Today, we pass the mic to those who know the challenges and issues of refugees best: Refugee UN Volunteers. Meet John and Adow, who share their reflections on serving within their refugee communities.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), one in every 78 people on earth is now displaced.
The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme has been operating in Lao PDR since 1983, and over 1,000 UN Volunteers have served in the country to date. In 2021, over 70 UN Volunteers served in UN agencies, project offices and government ministries through the UN Development Programme (UNDP), including 23 UN Community Volunteers deployed to remote areas of the country. One of these is Bounchanh Oudom, a national UN Volunteer Disability Inclusion Specialist with UNDP, who shares her story.
UNV works with partners to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Lao PDR Development Strategy. To do so, the organization recruits diverse talents and offers a variety of volunteer opportunities.
“Volunteering is a vocation; all we need is to be passionate and determined to help build a better and more equal world for everyone. This is what resonated with me: that one day I will be able to make a contribution in tackling Gender-Based Violence against women and girls.” These are the words of Bintang Aulia, national UN Volunteer Specialist Communications and Social Media Support Officer with UN Women in Indonesia.
Bintang Aulia began her volunteering work in 2016 during her last year of university, when she joined a climate movement in Bandung. She participated for a year learning not only about the environment and what she can do to help the earth but also about how volunteering works.
