Charities should tap into a new trend for volunteering after retirement, according to new research. A survey of 1,000 workers aged 45 and over showed that more than one in five are considering taking up voluntary work after they retire.  Visit site

Washington DC, USA: While International Volunteer Day is held on 5 December, in North America National Volunteer Week (NVW) 2008 is from 27 April to 3 May. In the US, this week is about "engaging individuals in service, inspiring a nation to join a movement for change, and recognizing deserving volunteers with the President’s Volunteer Service Award and other meaningful signs of thanks". The campaign slogan is 'Volunteer to Change the World'.

Click here for the United States NVW site and here for Canada's.

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If the Peace Corps wishes to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS, it needs to send expertise, not just youthful zeal. That was what Ethiopian officials politely told Peace Corps country director Peter Parr when he approached them last summer with a proposal to send a batch of volunteers to work on the pandemic.  Visit site

Washington DC, USA: Millions of young people from Cambodia to Peru, from Pakistan to Liberia, from Mexico to Mongolia, are implementing community service projects during the 20th Annual Global Youth Service Day (GYSD).

Young volunteers will address important community needs through service and service-learning projects addressing climate change, literacy, poverty, human rights and many other issues.

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Kites depicting ‘Nini’, one of the five Beijing Olympic Games mascots, decorated the sky of Haidian Park in Beijing, where kite flying activity with the theme of protecting Beijing swifts was held on 19 April. Many Chinese and international volunteers who have registered to be Beijing swift protectors participated in the activity with their families.  Read article

Beijing, China: The Beijing Olympic Games is apparently not only an opportunity for athletes. It is and will be an impetus for the development of volunteerism in China.   Visit site

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Not too long ago, most people lived in large combined families or tribes, and members of the family or clan helped each other in every possible way. Now, as we move towards the nuclear family model, which consists only of parents and their children, and have become more individualistic, have we lost the habit of giving?  Visit site

Seoul, South Korea: Better labor management and corporate transparency, cooperation with other companies, developing environmentally friendly vehicles and helping the poor and disabled are among the list of initiatives Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group representatives announced yesterday.  Read article

Sgt. Brian Fountaine was recovering in Walter Reed Army Medical Center when he got an unexpected visitor who offered to build him a house -- free of charge. The visitor was John Gonsalves, founder of Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit volunteer group that builds houses for severely injured veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  Read article

Mbabane, Swaziland : Overworked and poorly paid, volunteer caregivers in Swaziland struggling to cope with the growing numbers of bedridden patients with HIV, are faced with a hard choice: to quit or go hungry.  Read article