I joined the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) as a UN Volunteer in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) team shortly after the first COVID-19 outbreak in Kenya in May 2020. Almost immediately after I started my assignment, traveling to the field was no longer safe due to the rising COVID-19 infection rates in the country.

Contamination of the environment with faecal matter directly affects the quality of the air, water and food that we consume. Furthermore, open defecation and poor hygiene practices are the leading causes of child mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and stunting, conditions that can have irreversible negative effects on the cognitive development of a child.

Nizar (24), Raymonda (28) and Zeinab (27) serve as UN Youth Volunteers in Water/Irrigation Engineering, assisting with the upgrade of existing irrigation infrastructure. "The project targets the rehabilitation of existing damaged irrigation canals and the transformation of earthen canals to concrete canals," Raymonda explains.

Dirty water and poor sanitation is a major problem in Zambia in southern Africa, where 50 per cent of the population does not have access to sanitation. This has led to recurrent cholera outbreaks in many parts of the country.