Finland and UNV mark 50 years—1974 to 2024

United Nations Volunteers
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For half a century, the partnership between the Government of Finland and United Nations Volunteers has created opportunities for Finnish nationals to volunteer around the world for sustainable development. From 1974 to 2024, we mark this important event—through a snapshot of milestones.

Finland and the full funding partnership with UNV started in 1974 with the signing of an agreement that resulted in the deployment of the first three Finnish nationals as UN Volunteers in 1975—Mirja Heijari with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Yemen as a nurse, Matti Järvinen, a Radio Studio Technician with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Tanzania and Pekka Savinsaari with UN-OTC in Swaziland in a water and se

Supporting a brighter future for Djibouti's youth

United Nations Volunteers
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UN Volunteers with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Djibouti support initiatives that directly impact the future of children. With a quarter of children aged 5 to 17 out of school and 294,000 classified as vulnerable, the volunteer assignments of Diana Ranja, Abdoulfatah Sahal Souleiman, and Laetitia Dushimirimana are essential for effecting meaningful change in communities on the ground.

Growing up in Madagascar, Diana Ranja witnessed how poverty deprived children of education and healthcare. This inspired her journey as a UN Volunteer with UNICEF in Djibouti, where she serves as an Education Specialist. 

It's more than a courthouse, it's justice within reach

A blog from Democratic Republic of the Congo
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I am Herculan Muntasomo from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For the past two years, I’ve been part of the construction of the courthouse in Kalemie, a city on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika. This is about much more than modernizing infrastructure. It’s about restoring confidence in the judicial system by providing a functional space for over 100 judges and judicial staff while ensuring justice is within reach for everyone.

The construction of this courthouse is part of the United Nations Joint Support Programme for Justice Reform 2020-2024—under which, this project was launched on April 7, 2022. 

The courthouse is designed to give the four million residents of Tanganyika Province—60 percent of whom are women—better access to justice. 

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