Farmers in Sudan reap the benefits of the UNV Women farming project in 2024. Photo UNV.
As 2025 National Volunteer Week draws to a close, Esperance Weekender discovers new ways for volunteers to give back to their community.
Established in 1989, National Volunteer Week is the premier celebration of volunteers and volunteerism in Australia.
It is an opportunity to highlight the important role of volunteers in our community and invites people not currently volunteering to give it a go.
National Volunteer Week’s theme is “Connecting Communities” and two organisations promise to connect volunteers in Esperance and in the bush to global experiences.
The Australian Volunteers Program
Australian Volunteers Program, which includes Australian Academic Volunteers Abroad and Australian Business Volunteers, create opportunities to connect volunteers with overseas experiences.
These experiences may be overseas or done remotely from home, or a combination of both, termed hybrid, in which volunteers will spend part of their deployment on location and part of it working from home.
The Australian Volunteers Program offers a diverse range of assignments.
Australian Volunteers could be mentoring animal shelter workers in Bali or working alongside civil and infrastructure engineers in Samoa, developing cricket coaching in Indonesia or supporting students with communication needs as a speech therapist in Kiribati.
The program matches skilled volunteers with partner organisations in 25 countries across the Pacific, Asia and Africa, to support them to achieve their development goals.
A small allowance of about $79 is payable monthly to online, “remote” volunteers and a larger allowance is paid to volunteers deployed on in-country assignments, with the latter rate varying according to the cost of living in different locations.
Support for volunteers extends beyond a simple living allowance to incorporate inclusion support for volunteers with specific requirements, and physical and psychological health and safety support.
Australian Volunteers state remote volunteering helps create change and that a wide range of skills are needed for assignments that are tailored to fit the needs of partner organisations.
Mobilization and Partnership Development Lead, in Cambodia washing their hands using a foot-pedal operated tap. photo: Harjono Djoyobisono.
Organisations and volunteers get training and support from dedicated teams in each country.
Benefits include international experience without relocation, the chance to share skills in an international development setting, and meeting new people.
Raine Dixon, Program Director, Australian Volunteers Program said volunteering was a valuable experience and many volunteers found they gained just as much or more than they contributed.
“Through volunteering they learn about a new country, colleagues and culture,” Ms Dixon said.
“It’s an immersive experience where Australian volunteers have the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of how to work across cultures and help create change.
“Skilled, global volunteering promotes cultural understanding and solidarity by establishing people to people links and forming partnerships between communities and organisations around the world.
Current assignments may be viewed on the program’s homepage: AustralianVolunteers.com .
United Nations Volunteers Online
Another organisation that provides an avenue for people to volunteer from the comfort of their homes, whether in the bush or the middle of town, is the United Nations Volunteer organisation.
There are also numerous roles for people who wish to volunteer overseas but no hybrid roles.
Online volunteers are becoming “the digital powerhouse” of the United Nations, UN Volunteer Executive Coordinator Toily Kurbanov said on International Volunteer Day.
Mr Kurbanov described online volunteers as, “real people — with massive collective brain and a huge heart.”
“They work from afar but are at the core of peace, humanitarian and development efforts.”
He said the selection of a UN volunteers from the database of 350,000 took a couple of days and once on board, the assignment — from anywhere in the world that help was needed, could start straight away. A combination of UN agencies and approved partnered organisations can recruit volunteers who apply for assignments posted on the UNV online website.
In 2024, 18,000 volunteer requests were posted by UN agencies for digital tasks, almost double the total for 2023.
The executive coordinator said the structure of volunteerism was shifting, “you don’t need to pack and move across the globe,” he said, “you can provide meaningful support online.”
Online assignments have also transitioned, from traditional roles of translation and document editing, and many seek support with open-source machine-learning software, social media assistance, voting education and civic participation.
Online or “remote” UN volunteers do not receive a living allowance like UN volunteers “on location”, but they do get a certificate of appreciation on completion of their assignment.
Tasks are of varying degrees of complexity from the very simplest of duties such as online mapping of geographical areas, to advanced data analysis and communications, and assignments vary in length from a few weeks to two years.
Remote volunteers just need a device like a mobile phone or a tablet and an internet connection.
Mr Kurbanov said the UNV had made much progress in the last few years in disability inclusion, its numbers of disabled volunteers swelling from just 5 before the pandemic to 270 in 2024.
He said while the nature of volunteerism was changing, it was and always would be essentially about people coming together to make a difference.
Readers can learn more about the UN’s online volunteer roles at: app.unv.org and in-country roles at: unv.org/become-volunteer/volunteer-abroad .
