In West and Central Africa, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme promotes youth education by facilitating youth access to capacity building, education and professional opportunities within the UN system. In this region, where over 30 per cent of the population is between the age of 10 and 24, UNV invests in youth volunteerism as a means to empower and enable youth to contribute to peace and development.
Promoting girls’ education in Liberia
This story is part of the #Volunteers4Refugees campaign, launched by UNV in partnership with UNHCR on World Refugee Day 2019. The campaign features stories of six UN Volunteers working with UNHCR in the Arab States, Europe and CIS for one mission: to help save lives and build better futures for those forced from home.
Liliia Huzeieva, 22, will never forget the summer of 2014. Just a teenager at the time, Liliia was forced to leave her hometown of Donetsk shortly before the armed conflict escalated in the Donbass region of Ukraine.
“The hardest part was not only losing my home, but also being separated from part of my family,” Liliia says. “My father decided to stay in Donetsk as he didn’t want to leave, so I don’t see him anymore.”
This displacement motivated Liliia to seek the good in an otherwise tragic situation by resolving to help others who faced similar adversities.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The declaration followed a meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee for EVD in the DRC. The Committee cited recent developments in the outbreak in making its recommendation, including the first confirmed case in Goma, a city of almost two million people on the border with Rwanda, and the gateway to the rest of DRC and the world. Afke Bootsman, UNV's Regional Manager for West and Central Africa, was on the ground in the region this week and writes about the UNV response here.
Last night I wrapped up my visit to Brazzaville. It coincided with the announcement of the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Today I am traveling back to my office in Dakar and I could not be more motivated and determined for the UN Volunteers porgamme (UNV) to support the Congolese Government, population and WHO in bringing an end to the spread of this deadly Virus.
The global community faces myriad challenges from environmental disasters, conflicts, humanitarian emergencies, financial crisis and political tensions. These global common obstacles require common responses for our common future. We demand solidarity, creativity, engagement and partnership. The 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) anchored on alleviating poverty in all its forms by the year 2030 are our last hope to tackle the runaway peace, development and environmental challenges. The goals lay out a clear path to a sustainable future. A lot has been achieved, but a lot remains undone, with an increasingly serious obstacle in the form of growing global inequality.
Inequality is a paradox of our modern society. A 2018 Oxfam International report shows that 26 people own the same wealth as 3.8 billion who make up the poorest half of humanity.
This story is part of the #Volunteers4Refugees campaign, launched by UNV in partnership with UNHCR on World Refugee Day 2019. The campaign features stories of six UN Volunteers working with UNHCR in the Arab States, Europe and CIS for one mission: to help save lives and build better futures for those forced from home.
“Some people begin to see refugees as numbers — or even worse, as threats,” says Anja Ingabire, a UN volunteer with UNHCR in Jordan. “Behind each refugee there are personal stories of loss and tragedy. Every story is unique and touches you in a different way. It is the person who makes the story.”
As we sit on our comfortable couches at home and watch TV or read articles about refugees in areas of crisis or conflict, it is easy to become desensitized to the plight of this most vulnerable demographic.
This story is part of the #Volunteers4Refugees campaign, launched by UNV in partnership with UNHCR on World Refugee Day 2019. The campaign features stories of six UN Volunteers working with UNHCR in the Arab States, Europe and CIS for one mission: to help save lives and build better futures for those forced from home.
When the war in Syria began in 2011, Elsie Aroyan was working as an elementary school teacher in her hometown of Aleppo. But instead of teaching a lesson one day, Elsie would learn one that would change the trajectory of her life.
“My husband and I were in a remote city visiting our relatives when the situation in Aleppo became worse and we couldn’t go back home,” she says. “When I closed the door of my apartment 8 years ago, I thought I would be leaving for a week, but ended up leaving my home for good.”
