Lebanon

UNV bridging between civil society and the Millennium Development Goals
Alessia Bertelli, Italian IUNV Intern

I arrived in Lebanon last October with the mission to get the civil society involved in the Millennium Development Goals campaign. I think it is not by chance that UNDP chose a UNV to carry out this task: as a young UNV intern I feel that I am able to contribute the added values of UNV, such as our grassroots approach and peers communication skills, along with UNVs very own enthusiasm through making a change in people’s lives.

Upon my arrival in Lebanon, a country I have never visited before, I was unaware that I would be given the chance to witness some of the most dramatic events in the country’s recent history. In my day-to-day work this translates into the terrific experience of sharing in Lebanese youth’s fears and hopes for their future, and of designing together projects to get yet more youth involved in taking their destinies into their hands. This gives me the tremendous satisfaction to bring the MDGs back to the people, by whom and for whom they were originally designed. It is wonderful to see my office in the UN House, in Beirut downtown, turned into an open forum where young people bring their ideas and take inspiration: this is exactly what I like to think the UN should represent for every people of every country.