Promoting Volunteerism for Peace and Development

L A Spanish UN Volunteer with the UN mission in Guatemala educating the local community on their rights.InnovationDuring your assignment, if you come upwith an idea about how to promotevolunteerism for development, togetherwith your co-workers and colleagues try toturn this idea into an initiative that couldattract local and/or national support forvolunteerism. There might be a way to dothis within the framework of your UNVassignment, or you might be able to do it intandem with your assignment, perhaps bypartnering with other local organizations.While serving as a UN Volunteer in Laos, Avi Sarkar started a free school in thevillage of Non Kho Neua in space donated by local temples and the village primaryschool. Since the school opened in 2002, more than 1,000 children have attended.Twenty unpaid volunteers from the local community teach the children, giving theirtime on weekends and after work, as well as collecting resources for the school andsometimes even contributing their own money to buy snacks for the children or toput on school events such as sports days. Inspired by the contributions of thesevolunteer teachers, medical staff from the local hospital – including doctors, nursesand pharmacists – began offering free health services to the children attending theschool. All of this began with the efforts of one UN Volunteer.