I have a long history of service that began at a young age. I completed residencies for unaccompanied refugee children and volunteered with CISV, an international youth organization that promotes peace through education. My previous experiences prepared me well for my UN Volunteer assignments with UNDP in Kosovo, fully funded by Sweden. They played a crucial role in helping me truly understand the challenges people face and the significance of finding solutions to alleviate human suffering.

The disability inclusion strategy of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme enables UN partners to include persons with disabilities in their workforce, thus expanding opportunities, diversity and representation. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development put forward 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which reflect the rights of persons with disabilities. This vision of a better future can only be achieved with the full participation of everyone, including persons with disabilities.

The Great Green Wall, an African-led initiative, aims to restore Africa's degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in one of the world's most vulnerable regions, the Sahel. The initiative aligns perfectly with the broader sustainable development goals of the United Nations. It addresses 15 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including challenges such as climate change, desertification, drought, famine, conflict and migration.  

The DRC has faced myriad challenges, ranging from significant humanitarian assistance needs and chronic underdevelopment to political instability and protracted armed conflict in the Eastern part of the country. Humanitarian, development and peace actors are all present to support the government and the population with its recovery and development pathway.

The objective was to live up to the wellbeing of UN Volunteers stationed with UN partners across the country. The outcome was informative and inspiring, in every sense of the word.

Engaging with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme has been rewarding. UNV has helped me develop my confidence, leadership and communication skills, make new friends and become a Global Goals Advocate. On my path to UNV, I was involved in community service throughout my years in school and participated in the Youth Leadership Programme (YLP) launched by UNDP. 

In 2018, we launched the Refugee UN Volunteer special initiative in collaboration with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, engaging refugees and asylum seekers in UNV assignments in their host countries. 

It was early 2015 when I heard about UNV at an international job fair in Berlin. I had graduated with a law degree and newly qualified as a magistrate, with professional experience at the European Commission in Brussels. I was looking for opportunities that would take me far, and not place me behind a desk handling legal cases. While at the job fair, I attended an information session on German lawyers at the UN. Coincidently, the person leading that session was a former UN Volunteer, and that's how my journey in the UN system began.

UN Volunteers have played invaluable roles in UN humanitarian assistance from the first days of war in Ukraine and UNV is committed to staying and delivering in support of millions of displaced people.

The children of Timor-Leste face many barriers to living a full and prosperous life. Poverty, malnutrition and poor access to healthcare mean that many children are unable to thrive. Only one in four children aged 3-5 years have access to pre-school and the others start schooling directly in grade 1, leaving them at a disadvantage that may impact subsequent years of their education.