Ongoing Tradition: Volunteering in Uzbekistan
“All over the globe, millions of volunteers are helping to advance sustainable development and peace. This engagement takes many forms: volunteering organisations, individuals working on their own in their communities, and service with us and our partners as UN Volunteers,”
- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
Being a volunteer means helping your community, your friends and neighbours, and people living in other towns, regions and nations. It means being a part of your civil society, playing an active role in your government and helping to protect the environment. It means doing all this with no expectation of financial reimbursement.
Volunteerism serves a crucial but often overlooked function in the running of every country. The State of the World’s Volunteerism Report, to be released by UN Volunteers on the 5th of December 2011, will offer a much-awaited insight into the global significance of volunteerism.
It was in 2000 that the original International Volunteer Day was held in order to recognise the work of volunteers around the global for the first time, but volunteerism had been firmly grounded in Uzbek culture for many centuries before. The fundamental concept of Hasher, or volunteering, has always played an important role in Uzbek society. Hasher refers to the act of helping your neighbour, providing services to those less fortunate, and offering your skills and abilities as free resources to your community. Ten years after the original International Volunteer Day, the United Nations Volunteers organisation has facilitated a year-long celebration of volunteering and Hasher in Uzbekistan. The importance of volunteering in this prosperous and peaceful country, and its significance in regards to the nation’s successful implementation of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, seems to have been defined in the Secretary General Ban Ki-moons speech used to mark the 10th Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV+10).
“Beginning with the words ‘We the peoples’, the United Nation Charter reminds us that crafting solutions to global challenges is a job not only for governments, but for people, communities and civil society,” Mr. Ki-moon said “On International Volunteer Day we recognise the dedication of volunteers, their admirable spirit of service, and their wide-ranging efforts to promote the goals of the United Nations.”
The strong correlation between volunteering in Uzbekistan, and the intentions of both the United Nations and its volunteering organisation UNV, can be witnessed in Uzbekistan’s featured appearance in the State of the World Volunteerism Report. This report is due to be released by UNV in December 2011, with the support of a UN General Assembly Resolution. The report, which highlights the universal nature of volunteerism and its importance in regards to the on-going development of nations around the world, contains a reference to the work undertaken by volunteers in order to reduce the prevalence of Tuberculosis in Uzbekistan’s far west. This mention illustrates the deep respect that the UNV holds for volunteering in our nation.
To mark IYV+10 and the release of the State of the World Volunteerism Report, UNDP, UNV and UNIC wish to recognise and commend the initiatives undertaken by Uzbek volunteers in 2011.