...decided up a national volunteer movement, with the support of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme, to channel spontaneous large-scale citizen participation in relief and rehabilitation activities into long-term disaster preparedness. Another example is the Bina Mandiri crisis centre in tsunami-devastated Banda Aceh in Indonesia, where UNV has mobilized a network of local volunteers from within the affected population to form the backbone of the centre's ongoing provision of support and counselling.

Every day across Kenya, communities rally together, following the ancient East African tradition called "Harambee", Swahili for "pulling together". They help each other harvest crops and build homes, rural schools and health outposts in some of the country's remotest areas. This same phenomenon is called gotong royong in Indonesia, shramadana in India, mingu in the Andean countries and al taawun wal tawasul in many Arab States. Everywhere we look, women and men are investing themselves and "pulling together" to bring progress to their communities. They rarely make the headlines, but their cumulative impact is enormous. They are volunteers. Volunteerism is an...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



More articles from UN Chronicle
The gateway: volunteerism and the United Nations system., December 01, 2006
The Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust and today.(Remembrance and Bey..., December 01, 2006
Conversation with ... Mohammad Khatami on the Dialogue Among Civilizat..., December 01, 2006
The Dominican Republic as a pilot project.(Millennium Development Watc..., December 01, 2006

Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.

Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication name or publication date.

About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company analysis or best practices in managing your organization, Goliath can help you meet your business needs.

Our extensive business information databases empower business professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible, authoritative information they need to support their business goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting, company research or defining management best practices - Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.