Maroua, Cameroon: Jimmy Henry Nyingcho, 31 years old, is a national UN Volunteer, married and a father of one. He is assigned with UN Women Cameroon as the gender, women empowerment and social cohesion expert, and he is helping women refugees gain skills to generate income. These women are based at the Minawao refugee camp in Maroua, that hosts close to 60,000 refugees from Nigeria.

Rumbek, South Sudan: As a UNV Human Rights Officer with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the main part of my assignment is to monitor, verify and report human rights violations as per the Mandate (2241, 2015).

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: Sustainable Development Goal 5 aims to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.” Volunteering offers an excellent way of empowering women, allowing them to show what they are capable of, while acquiring new skills and capacities. Volunteering also allows women to access sectors usually reserved to men, and to take on new roles, especially as leaders and managers. Women volunteers can serve as role models, and inspire others to follow in their footsteps. An additional reason to volunteer!

Makueni County, Kenya: Catherine Ngave, a national UN Volunteer in Kenya: I started volunteering at a young age in our community. We would volunteer to clean the market places and also fetch water for the elderly women in the village. I never knew it would lead to national volunteerism.

Lilongwe, Malawi:  “When I set out from Uganda in 2013 to take up my UNV assignment in Malawi as a Joint Procurement Coordinator, my family and I wondered what I could offer.  I did bring 17 years of national and international experience in procurement and supply chain management.  But when I learnt more about the nature of my assignment, relating to the ‘Delivering as One’ (DaO) reforms, I realized the role was the first of its kind.

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: As a master student in Canada, I studied Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) processes in West African countries. While doing my internship with UNDP in Namibia, a colleague who was a UN Volunteer encouraged me to register online. I did not have a clue what the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme was, but I took her advice anyway. About a year later, I was recruited to serve as UN Volunteer DDR Officer, which was an academic dream come true.

Lusaka, Zambia: I did not hesitate to take up the UNV Programme Officer’s assignment in Zambia when the opportunity arose. I had attained my MSc. in Development Management and long experience of what volunteerism contributes to both individuals and their communities.

Bentiu, South Sudan: As soon as I blow the starting whistle, 12 women crash into me, one after the other, hitting as hard has any man ever could. When the stampede passes I see 50 women tearing off into the distance down the back road of the Bentiu protection of civilians (POC) camp in Unity State, South Sudan.

Kankan, Upper Guinea; Guinea-Conakry: When I took up the role of the UN Youth Volunteer for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, I was not quite sure what to expect. "From the university benches, past lectures and books to the real-life practice of human rights on the field." These words are what come to mind when I try to summarise those three weeks on mission to monitor human rights in Guinea.