Bonn, Germany: Volunteers and volunteer-involving organizations around the world are gearing up to celebrate International Volunteer Day on 5 December, an opportunity to recognize the contribution of volunteerism to peace and development.  Read article

Bonn, Germany: UNV is launching its redesigned Online Volunteering service website on International Volunteer Day, 5 December 2008. The newly multilingual site enables organizations to connect with volunteers in French and Spanish as well as English.  Read article

Auckland, New Zealand: Karen Roberts, National Manager of Volunteering, says IHC is putting its focus on youth over the next year. She says young people with intellectual disabilities want to be like every other young person. In the meantime, though, all the work of its hundreds of volunteers is to be acknowledged with special events on 5 December, International Volunteer Day.

See also the New Zealand IVD blog: http://ivd2008.blogspot.com/

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Toronto, Canada: Flare Magazine is calling for nominations for the 13th Annual Flare Volunteer Awards. The awards honour Canadian female volunteers aged 13 and up who have made a significant contribution to the lives of people in their communities.  Read article

Nikosia, Cyprus: The national volunteer who will represent Cyprus at the European Trophies in Strasbourg is Ms. Fotini Papadopoulou, President of the Cyprus Red Cross.  Read article

Today, United Nations Day and World Development Information Day, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme are pleased to launch a joint publication, Volunteering and Social Activism: Pathways for participation in human development. The paper is based on a study undertaken by the three organisations in 2007-2008.  

The background study finds that both volunteering and social activism are important strategies for fostering people’s participation in social change and human development.

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New York, USA: A UN General Assembly committee has adopted a new UN resolution that calls on governments to mobilize support for volunteerism research and asks the UN system to integrate volunteerism into its programmes.  Read article