Kiev, Ukraine: Building civil society in the former Eastern bloc countries presents some unique challenges. Along with local partners, UNV and UNDP are working together to boost the role of volunteerism there. Read

Kyiv: UN Development Programme and UN Volunteers in Ukraine are hosting the three-day regional workshop for South-East Europe and CIS “Advancing Youth Inclusion, Civic Engagement and Volunteerism towards Achievement of MDGs”, which opened today. The workshop has attracted over 40 participants from eight countries. Read

Kyiv: The first International Volunteer Promotion Campaign was held from August 27 to September 10, 2007, in Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Chernihiv oblasts. During the two week campaign, volunteers from Poland, Serbia, France, Germany, Denmark, Turkey and Japan joined Ukrainian peers to work on solving actual problems of Ukrainian rural communities. The initiative was sponsored by the UN Volunteers Programme and the Ukrainian Association for Youth Cooperation Alternative-V, with additional support from United Nations Development Programme projects “Human Security for Ukrainian Youth” and Chornobyl Recovery and Development Programme (CRDP). Read

Kyiv, Ukraine: On 17 July, the 2007 All-Ukraine "Volunteer of the Year" Contest was launched. The initiative is organised by the Volunteer Centre "Dobra Volia" with support from GURT Resource Centre.

The contest is aimed at public acknowledgment of volunteers' deeds and appreciation of their contribution to community development in Ukraine.

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Mohyliv-Podilsky: On 15-16 May over 50 local volunteers were trained by UNDP/MGSDP to further build their capacity on HIV/AIDS issues and prepare them for disseminating this knowledge among the local youth by peer-to-peer approach. Read

Lviv-Kyiv: On 21-22 December the international conference “Volunteerism in Ukraine – perspectives and barriers for further development” was held in Lviv, Ukraine. Read

Korosten: At a recent meeting of the Korosten “Youth Council” (Zhytomyrska oblast, Ukraine), members were discussing how sad it was that the town park is so full of litter.  The typical traditional response in this former Soviet republic is that “someone ought to do something about it.”  For this group of young activists, the response was “We ought to do something about it.” Read