Note to Correspondents

Exhibition on Volunteerism, Opening on 5 December, Highlights Impact

 

of Ordinary People on United Nations Goals

 

All Walks of Life:  Volunteers of the World, a multimedia exhibition, will open in the North East Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby on Monday, 5 December, at 6 p.m. with a reception hosted by the Government of Germany.

Organized by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, the German-sponsored show’s photos and videos illustrate the universality of the volunteer ethic around the world.  Ordinary people can have an extraordinary impact on United Nations goals, from poverty reduction, to humanitarian response.  This new exhibition aims to highlight their work.

Involving 22 organizations, part of the exhibition is a sequence of images from Dominic Nahr, the Magnum photographer invited by UNV in May 2011 to depict volunteers and volunteering organizations in Kenya.

Throughout 2011, organizations from across the spectrum have been marking the tenth anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers.  The many partners wish to prove how much volunteering matters and encourage Governments to enhance volunteering policy and legislation, while also improving volunteer networks and infrastructure at different levels.

“International Volunteer Day this year is a major milestone,” says UNV Executive Coordinator Flavia Pansieri.  “We must engage millions more people in sustainable development and long-term peacebuilding.  Volunteering is a great way to make it happen, and this exhibition brings their work to life.  It really shows how, by volunteering together, we can change the world.”

UNV is the United Nations body that promotes volunteerism in support of peace and development worldwide.  Volunteerism can transform the pace and nature of development benefiting both society at large and the individual volunteer.  It empowers change from the grass roots up, especially when enabled by strong partnerships at every level.  It is 10 years since the International Year of Volunteers, and the United Nations has called for this anniversary to be marked across the planet.

For more information, visit www.worldvolunteerweb.org, or contact Philip Sen, Commmunications Officer, Tenth anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers, at philip.sen@unvolunteers.org, tel.:  +1 347 567 6026.  For information on United Nations exhibitions, call Jan Arnesen, tel.:  +1 212 963 8531, e-mail:  arnesen@un.org; or Liza Wichmann, tel.: +1 212 963 0089, e-mail:  wichmann@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record