17 July 2006

Glasgow, Scotland: Volunteering and community participation were the “magic stick” that turned around communities affected by the Chernobyl fallout 20 years ago.

As a workshop panelist, Mr. Yugesh Pradhanang, a United Nations Volunteer from Nepal, shared at an international conference recently how volunteer community members formed organizations, partnerships and engaged with local authorities to better public facilities such as water supply systems, health centres and school buildings.  

The  workshop entitled “Volunteering & Activism: One Agenda for a Just World” at the CIVICUS World Assembly held in Glasgow recently, the UNV volunteer presented  the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme (CDRP), a joint initiative of the Government of Ukraine, the United Nations Development Programme, UNV and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

He highlighted how the programme depended volunteerism  and community activism to reach its targets – have better lives for the Chernobyl disaster victims. UNV volunteers and local activists have worked extensively on sensitizing communities on the benefits of volunteering and its role in steering community development forward.

Mr. Pradhanang shared the panel with Cecilia Dokendorff, from Fundacion SOLES and a CIVICUS Board member, and Rose Ekeleme from International Effort for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) Nigeria. Liz Burns, OBE, President of IAVE facilitated the workshop. 

The presentation was followed by a discussion on the relationship between activism and volunteering. Cannot volunteers effect social change?  Are not activists concerned with people as well as with social and political justice?  Are emerging new forms of volunteerism among the youth blurring the distinctions? 

Workshop participants signed up to continue this discussion  within the CIVICUS community and the topic will also be discussed at the IAVE World Volunteer Conference in November 2006 in India.

The CIVICUS World Assembly, held in 21-15 June, was attended by some 1,400 civil society representatives and will again be held in Glasgow in 2007.