UNICEF Kazakhstan Online Volunteers Support Youth During COVID-19
By sharing their knowledge and positive attitude
Lina is 14 and she lives in Almaty which is the largest city in Kazakhstan. 19-year-old Arman lives in Karasu village in the west of the country. They decided to become UNICEF Online Volunteers a couple of months ago.
In April 2020, UNICEF, together with the National Volunteer Network, launched an online volunteer program in Kazakhstan #PidasyBarKarantin (#UsefulQuarantine). The initiative which started with just 200 people, has now attracted around 1,500 motivated young people willing to share their knowledge and positive attitude with their peers across the country. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is also supporting this online volunteering initiative which has been very effective in delivering key messages during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both during and after the quarantine, young volunteers worked to raise awareness about COVID-19 and spread important social messages through online platforms.
“As a UNICEF volunteer, I got much more than I initially hoped”
“I can confidently say that as a UNICEF volunteer, I got much more than I initially hoped,” says Lina, for whom working with UNICEF was her first volunteer experience. “My original goal was to spread key messages on COVID-19. However, UNICEF not only helped me understand COVID-19 and its effects on children, but also other socially important issues and ideas and taught us the necessary skills and knowledge to implement these ideas. I am very happy that my contribution is valuable and that I can positively impact our society.”
Reaching over 500,000 people with the information they need, UNICEF volunteers have helped spread the word in a number of areas including emotional health support during quarantine, prevention of violence against children and online learning. It is important to note that young volunteers also helped UNICEF to be even closer to the people of Kazakhstan.
“During my journey with UNICEF I have found many ways to connect with people in my village, whether this be through social media or any other messengers and phone calls.”
“I grew up in a small village where some residents do not have access to the Internet or they have a poor connection, so there is a possibility that they receive too little information,” Arman says. “During my journey with UNICEF I have found many ways to connect with people in my village, whether this be through social media or any other messengers and phone calls.”
As part of the campaign, volunteers attend weekly training webinars on various topic such as safe behavior during quarantine, fact-checking and ways to identify false information about the coronavirus, digital skills, and much more. After the training, young people are given various tasks such as posting on social media using materials provided by UNICEF to share their knowledge with others.
Lina and Arman say the online volunteering program has helped them make good use of their time during quarantine, and they, in turn, have helped their friends and family stay up to date. Their classmates and friends say that Lina and Arman helped them understand that staying positive and being kind to one another is just as important now as taking appropriate precautions to prevent the spread of the disease.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives around the world. With schools closed and events cancelled, many young people are missing out on some of the most important moments of their lives. 2.5 million students were unable to attend school in Kazakhstan alone”, says UNICEF Representative in Kazakhstan Arthur van Diesen. “We are very pleased that young people across Kazakhstan have decided to join the ranks of UNICEF volunteers. They help us speak the language of youth and share important information in an understandable and appropriate format for them. I have been very impressed and inspired by the commitment and determination of young volunteers to contribute to the fight against COVID-19 from the comfort of their homes.”
UNICEF considers volunteering to be an important strategy to enable young people to acquire new skills, implement their ideas and help others. The UNICEF Kazakhstan team hopes that this program will inspire others to volunteer and spread kindness. The initiative has shown that with the help of volunteers, we can multiply our impact which is incredibly important in this challenging year of 2020 which is also the year of volunteering in Kazakhstan.
