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By Hillary Munedzi
Youths have been urged to do voluntary work so as to gain skills that will be impactful to their societies and personal development.
This was said by United Nations Developmental Progamme (UNDP) Zimbabwe Resident Representative, Mia Seppo at the Dialogue Event – for the Promotion of the Global Volunteerism Standards on a Zimbabwean context event at a local hotel in Harare yesterday.
“United Nations Volunteers (UNV) has been engaging with youth networks, international volunteer organizations, national volunteering and civil society organizations, and the private sector to develop and scale up the engagement of Youth Volunteers in Programming.
The overall aim of the UNV programme continues to be to facilitate the engagement of youth in global peace and sustainable human development through volunteerism, bringing the voice of youth into the development discourse and helping young people to realize their full social, economic and human potential,” said Mia Seppo.
There is great potential for African countries to do voluntary work. Kigali, the Capital city of Rwanda is the cleanest city in Africa and most of the job is done by volunteers.
“The enormous potential of volunteerism is an inspiration to UNV and to volunteers around the world. The UNV programme directly mobilizes more than 7,700 UN Volunteers every year nationally and internationally. Eighty percent of our global volunteers come from developing countries of which over half of those are Youth Volunteers, demonstrating the enormous contribution youths make towards development work across the world.
“As such, volunteerism is an important avenue for young people to proffer solutions and participate in community initiatives that benefit the whole of society in the long term. Continuing to allow young people an opportunity to serve their communities will go a long way in addressing some of the ills that often plague them, but positively harnessing their energies in a constructive direction,” she said.
Government and other stakeholders’ participation in the creation of the National Volunteer Strategy will go a long way in helping VSO in delivering their work in the communities they work in and empowering the volunteers who come in contact with affected people in different communities.
“It is against this backdrop that in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts, and Recreation and partners VSO and HigherLife and other partners, work embarked on the development of a National Volunteer Strategy (NVS) 2022 – 2026. The strategy was developed through an in-depth stakeholder consultative process to identify key gaps for consideration in the document.
“Key issues that were raised by the stakeholders included the need for a coordination mechanism to better connect Volunteers with opportunities, improved monitoring of volunteer contributions to better demonstrate attribution, and lastly to define volunteerism in order to enhance volunteer experience and reduce/minimise volunteer exploitation. The NVS was officially handed over to the Ministry of Youth and it is now undergoing internal government review. It is our expectation that once this document is officialised, it will go a long way in creating an enabling environment for volunteerism to flourish in Zimbabwe.” she said.
Speaking at the same event, Hon Kirsty Coventry, Minister of Sport, Arts and Recreation said young people must not expect to get paid when they do voluntary work but they must do it to serve their communities.
“Volunteerism is not supposed to be paid for since one is doing it for the benefit of the community and one cannot demand payment and this will defeat the whole essence of volunteerism, “ said Honorable Kirsty Coventry.