International Volunteer Day. Every year on December 5, the world honors those who cultivate charity and prove it with real deeds on a large scale and symbolically.
The date of celebration of the holiday was established in 1985 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Currently, the Governments of more than 80 countries of the civilized world have recognized and promoted the development of national volunteer movements, considering it as an effective tool for the development of society.
Volunteering in Ukraine is definitely one of the most sought-after functions in Ukraine in this difficult year of 2022. During the last 9 months, the volunteer front in our country gave the charity direction the most extensive meaning in all the years of independence and activated this important social movement all over the world.
The official note of the UN Secretary-General highlights the most important features of volunteering:
concern for people, solidarity and humane self-interest, spiritual quality and civic virtue, a rich source of human experience, new intellectual resources, participation and responsibility as the essence of active citizenship, citizenship, mutual trust, solidarity and responsibility, an ethical standard determining the quality of human relationships, providing a reliable platform for reestablishing connections between people, a new vision of social activity.
The most important feature of volunteering in the world is considered to be that a volunteer voluntarily spends part of his personal time, strength, energy, knowledge, and experience to carry out activities that are useful to people and society as a whole.
In Ukraine, the development of the volunteer movement began in the 1990s, when the first national charitable support service called "Helpline" was created. Calls to the line were answered by volunteers.
The modern volunteer movement in Ukraine urgently and very quickly acquired a global character. After all, the need of citizens for charity and help with the invasion of the Russian aggressor on the territory of our country has increased critically. From the first days of the large-scale war in Ukraine, the team of the Public Union "Ukrainian Fund of Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving" joined this important social mission.
The modern volunteer movement in Ukraine urgently and very quickly acquired a global character. After all, the need of citizens for charity and help with the invasion of the Russian aggressor on the territory of our country has increased critically. From the first days of the large-scale war in Ukraine, the team of the Public Union "Ukrainian Fund of Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving" joined this important social mission.
The Public Union "Ukrainian Fund of Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving" is a partner of UNICEF, so we managed and still manage to accumulate joint efforts in the organization of aid. During the acute phase of Russia's armed attack on Ukraine, our volunteers delivered about 1,000,000 tons of humanitarian aid and engaged in the urgent evacuation of civilians from potentially dangerous places.
Having secured the partnership of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the SpaceX company, we received 50 Starlink terminals and delivered them to hot spots that lost communication as a result of hostilities and needed emergency restoration.
Our volunteers collected almost UAH 18 million to support the Armed Forces, these funds went to the manufacture of individual protective equipment and other needs of our defenders, the GS team also provided support to medical institutions, provided them with equipment and materials.
Today, our charitable mission is combined with the public initiative UFEES, the League of Renewal Ukraine, ONOVA GIS HUB and has a meaningful continuation in the desire to unite like-minded people, professionals and philanthropists in real actions aimed at the rapid reconstruction of Ukraine's infrastructure and its thorough renewal.
We support the volunteer front, support and renew Ukraine together!