Promoting Volunteerism for Peace and Development

10 . PROMOTING VOLUNTEERISM FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENTIn Nigeria, UN Volunteers supportedthe United Nations Food andAgriculture Organization’s (FAO’s)work on preventing avian influenza.National UN Volunteer Dr. MusaSwang Shallangwa assisted in thecollection of data and assessment ofthe trends of diseases and outbreaks,with an emphasis on avian influenzaand other trans-boundary animaldiseases. Beyond his duties as askilled statistician, he also volunteeredto lecture on avian influenza tostudents of higher educationinstitutions and to the general public.In addition, he dedicated time as aresource person for a NigerianTelevision Authority programme aboutwhat avian influenza is and why thepublic should be concerned about it.Preparatory and ongoing reflection onvolunteerism for peace anddevelopment in your assignmentFormal and informal reflection on yourassignment will be an important part ofyour experience as a UN Volunteer. Itwould be helpful to begin to reflect onyour own experience – your expectations,observations, hesitations, etc. – beforeyour assignment begins. For example,you might want to keep a written recordsuch as a journal or a blog as a way tokeep track of how your perceptions ofyour assignment change over time.Before your assignment, you might wantto jot down your personal expectations ofwhat you hope to achieve, particularly interms of promoting volunteerism.During the course of your assignment,you may want to take stock periodicallyand think about the specific volunteerismfor peace and development element ofyour assignment and how you canimplement it. Once you are onassignment, your UNV Field Unit willsupport you in this reflection process. Youmay also find the Volunteer ReflectionToolkit (which your Programme Officer willprovide) helpful.