{UAH} INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER DAY MESSAGE

Picture: I managed to find my old UN Volunteer Identity Card for the occasion.

It's International Volunteer Day, marked every year on December 5th. It's been more than a decade since I first started volunteering in UN humanitarian work (If I recall correctly my ID number was UNV-00050. When I transferred to help with international aid work in the Darfur conflict, I became UNV-00051).

I can tell you how meaningful and uplifting it feels to offer ones time, knowledge and professional skills to help humanity. Especially all the poor men, women, and children suffering from conflict. As a media specialist I was in the UN Public Information Office, Radio Section. Building radio stations and training staff, including radio presenters and journalists, to help disseminate important information in post-conflict areas. I also feel particularly happy to have been part of the original team that built UN Radio in South Sudan as well (known mostly as Radio Miraya). But of course as a volunteer I would assist in any other humanitarian field as well when there was need for a helping hand. Volunteering is about helping those in need, or simply joining to achieve something constructive for community development. It doesn't have to be a big project by a big institution. But it is an important exercise because it does so much good for our own souls in a world that has become mostly about financial gain. In that sense I consider myself a true volunteer because I really wanted to be of help to humanity at least once in my lifetime. So I urge everyone, especially the youths, to make sure that they volunteer for their communities at least once in their lifetime's as well. It is like giving charity. But instead of money which many African youths don't have, you are offering for example your physical assistance to help build that school, or your professional knowledge where helpful for a community project. Trust me, it remains an achievement you can look back on with joy, or an experience that could help you in your future endeavours as part of your CV. I also would like to encourage any current volunteers to continue their effort. I know for example that UN peace-keeping missions around the world cannot operate without volunteers. We were the ones making everything run smoothly. Dedicated young men and women from all over the world who all had in them the heart of true humanitarians. But we all also had the minimum professional skills and standards required in all the various fields of international aid work. I remember being told how former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan allegedly first joined the UN as a volunteer. He was the boss by the time I started volunteering, and I had become a Senior Consultant/trainer by the time I left humanitarian work for the new recruits.

So let me wish all volunteers new and old, including all my former UN colleagues in all categories, a happy International Volunteers Day.

By Hussein Lumumba Amin

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