In 2020, WHO and UNV joined forces with the aim of recruiting 100 women to improve people’s health and well-being on the continent, while also promoting gender equality in Africa.  Thanks to this initiative, 77 UN Volunteer Health Champions are actively participating in the work of the World Health Organization (WHO). I am particularly appreciative of their actions during the COVID-19 response and other emergencies in the Africa Region. With diverse skill sets and competencies, they are also helping us sustain gains made in terms of our health priorities.  

Mariam Diarra is one of the 49 UN Community Volunteer Midwives recruited by UNFPA to improve the quality of health services in community health centres located in six rural communities in Mali — Koulikoro, Ségou, Sikasso, Mopti, Gao and Timbuktu. The programme aims to achieve three key outcomes: zero preventable maternal deaths, zero unmet needs for family planning and zero gender-based violence and other harmful practices, such as child marriage.

Weng provides strategic information, advocacy and technical support to coordinate stakeholders to deliver comprehensive life-saving HIV service. She focuses on technical and administrative support to programmes and coordinates partners from the Government, private sector and local communities. "I have been devoted to the field of HIV/AIDS for years, and UNAIDS has helped broaden my scope to go beyond medical care. My UN Volunteer assignment allowed me to participate in changing the underlying institutional inequality that burdens people living with HIV," she explains.  

UNFPA has been active in Ethiopia since 1973 and is working with the government, UN entities and partners to improve sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning, emergency obstetric care and fistula treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed significant pressure on health service delivery and compounded existing challenges in promoting gender equality and improving maternal health. 

National UN Volunteers have been playing a key role in providing healthcare to over 6,000 UN staff and their eligible dependents. They carry out daily walk-in consultations, emergency care, inpatient care, follow up of cases and healthcare promotional activities, with proper guidance from international UN Volunteers and senior medical staff, as stipulated in the UN Clinic Standard Operating Procedures.

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.

As a national UN Volunteer Medical Officer based at the Inter-agency UN Clinic, I support efforts to promote a wellbeing economy and culture in the UN system in Zambia. Human wellbeing, equitable access to healthcare and ecological sustainability are key deliverables that I strive for in my day-to-day work. I believe that the key to a healthy lifestyle is in the mantra of giving: "there is more happiness in giving than in receiving".

When I was younger, my sister developed a medical condition. She underwent two heart surgical procedures and endured a lot of suffering, but she survived and inspired me. She later asked me to consider a career in medicine to help other young girls. When this volunteering opportunity came up, I took it and became a UN Volunteer on 27 March 2008.

When Aidana Yergaliyeva (Kazakhstan), Dayanch Hojageldiyev* (Turkmenistan), Malika Djalalova (Uzbekistan), Sara Kajevikj (North Macedonia), Parandzem Paryan (Armenia), Faris Mahmutovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Rusudan Khotivari (Georgia) joined their teams, many countries faced – and still face – difficult COVID-19 situations. But that didn’t scare them off.

As a medical doctor, I have worked in conflict situations for most of my career. Since 2006, I have served as a medical doctor in Kabul, Afghanistan and Dili and Baucau in Timor Leste. During my assignments there, I helped set up UN level I clinics and handled medical issues similar to what I am handling now in South Sudan.