For Francesca, the winding road showed much of what she had learned about service. You do not always know the way. You cannot assume you have all the answers. Sometimes, the only way forward is to listen to the people who know the area.Francesca came to Lesotho from Italy as a UN Volunteer Social Policy Officer with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). She had worked in a country office before, but she wanted to move closer to the work in the field.

The volunteers have been prepared to take on specific duties across four key areas: the Green Zone, Blue Zone, hotels, and transportation. During the training, they were introduced to their assigned work areas and stations, and briefed on their roles, responsibilities, and the essential organizational information needed to support the conference. 

How do young people break the silence?Changing deeply rooted social norms often begins with conversations many people avoid.

Until recently, planning costs across multiple donors, countries, and assignments meant pulling together data from different systems and spending hours on manual calculations. The ICT data team set out to change that. Working closely with colleagues across UNV—including administration, finance and more—the data team developed a comprehensive Cost Planning Tool that brings financial, volunteer and planning data into a single platform. 

For many people, opportunities to volunteer with the United Nations remain little known. Kateřina Rohanová understands that feeling. Before joining the United Nations, she volunteered in different settings, from summer camps to dance studios but never imagined that volunteering also existed within the UN. She certainly didn't expect that one day she would become a UN Volunteer herself.