Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo: My story I am from Burkina Faso, a West African country located on the southern edge of Africa’s Sahara desert.  Minimal rainfall makes living conditions very hard for people. In 1976, when I started primary school, less than 20 per cent of all children had access to education. Millions of children  do not attend school due to poverty. I could have suffered the same fate like these millions of children being ignored in this remote part of the world, unable to write, nor read.

Abeche, Chad: When the closure of the United Nations Mission in Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) was announced by the UN Security Council in May, 2010, I was already posted in Abeche as a UNV Project and Advocacy Officer. “You need to experience a liquidation phase at least once,” I was told by colleagues who had.  Some said, “I did it [the liquidation], and I will not do it again.”  Others said, “This is the most stressful period of a mission.  If you can be in your unit liquidation team, you will learn a lot.”

Bissau, Guinea-Bissau: Every child has its rights. This is the name of the first Journal Mural (Wall Paper) created by more than 50 children that live in the Tchada community in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau. This activity was promoted by me, a Brazilian UN Volunteer, on a Saturday morning, two weeks after my arrival in the country where I volunteer as a UNV Communications and Advocacy Officer in the Resident Coordinator Office of the United Nations System in the country.