Volunteering Matters
Join UNV and Grammy-award winning singer, Angelique Kidjo, in showing the world why volunteering matters. Between 30 October and 6 December we want to collect photos of volunteer action from every country in the world, including from where you are. We want to hear from UN Volunteers, Online Volunteers, UNV staff, volunteers with other organizations, or people inspired by volunteers.
To join us, watch the weekly video and answer the weekly question with a photo and a caption. Every photo submitted will help light up our world with examples of volunteer action. Your photo could also win the title of: Most Compelling Volunteering Matters Photo 2011, and could become the UNV Facebook profile picture for 2012.
Follow up how when a photo is submitted from a particular country that country will light-up on an interactive map. By the end of the campaign, we hope that all countries will have lit up with examples of volunteer action.
Volunteering matters because volunteers have the power to change lives. They build social cohesion, enhance civic participation, mitigate conflict and contribute to a society’s well-being. But, for volunteerism’s full potential to be realized, more conducive policies are needed, and organizations need to advocate for the key role volunteer action has in attaining sustainable development. These are some of the major issues that have come out of this, the tenth Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV+10).
We want to hear your views about these issues on Facebook and Twitter, especially as momentum builds towards the culmination of IYV+10 on 5 December with the UN General Assembly discussing volunteerism. On that day, UNV will also launch the first-ever State of the World’s Volunteerism Report. Stay tuned to this page and be part of these momentous events, share examples of your volunteer action, and your views with us and volunteers all over the world.
On 7 December, UNV will reveal a digital mosaic made-up of your photos right here. This will be a snapshot of our volunteering world. So, in this very special year, let’s all show the world why volunteering matters.
Source: UN Volunteers
