The United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS) was a global volunteer initiative to help bridge the digital divide. UNITeS both supported volunteers applying information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D) and promoted volunteerism as a fundamental element of successful ICT4D initiatives.

UNITeS was launched in 2000 by then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and was hosted by the United Nations Volunteers programme. UNITeS was active until 2005. As of November 2009, all UNITeS web site materials were taken down from the orignal site at www.unites.org.

Because many UNITeS materials continue to be in demand and remain relevant (they may be more important now than they were when they were originally published!), I am now hosting some of them on my own web site. These archived resources include:

• Volunteers: Essential to ICT projects in developing countries
  Why volunteers are an essential and fundamental element to the success of information and communications technology (ICT) efforts in underdeveloped communities.

• Assisting Others As An Expert Volunteer
  This article was part of the online Knowledge Base hosted by UNITeS. It is an example of the kinds of resources that were a part of the UNITeS Knowledge Base to help volunteers applying ICT in the developing world, and to help organizations who wanted to involve such volunteers.

• Handheld computer technologies in community service/volunteering/advocacy
  This was a pioneering article, published in October 2001. It provides early examples of volunteers/citizens/grass roots advocates using handheld computer/personal digital assistants (PDAs) or phone devices as part of community service/volunteering/advocacy, or examples that could be applied to volunteer settings. It was originally part of the UNITeS online knowledge base.

• Instant Messaging and Volunteers
  This was a pioneering article, published in November 2002 and originally part of the UNITeS online knowledge base. It outlines the benefits of using Instant Messaging with volunteers, and offers suggestions for success based on UNV staff's own experience using IM with volunteers all over the world.

• UNITeS Contributions to the UNESCO Multimedia Training Kit
  The UNV staff managing the UNITeS initiative was invited to prepare a module on volunteers in telecentres and community media organizations for the UNESCO Multimedia Training Kit (MMTK). The module includes a slide show presentation, exercises, case studies and trainer notes.

Please update your links accordingly! 

Cell phones aren't just nice to have in developing countries -- cell phones play an essential role in delivering health care information, mobile banking capabilities, advocacy and awareness messages, commodity prices and weather reports to people who might never receive the information otherwise. As well, cell phone allow people an opportunity to gather and immediately share information to help in logistics, coordination, evaluation and reporting activities that are essential for various community and organizational programs and local quality of life.



See this list of service delivery via mobile phones in the developing world. for an excellent list of examples.



You can also see "Handheld computer technologies in community service/volunteering/advocacy", a pioneering article written in 2001 that offers even more examples of cell phone use in the developing world and as a part of NGO service delivery (note that this article has moved; if you linked to the article previously online, please adjust your links accordingly).

Being able to report results is vital for any nonprofit organization, NGO, or other mission-based organization (schools, government agencies, etc.). You must be able to show -- to the general public, to program partners, to supporters, to potential supporters, to the media -- that your organization or program is making a real difference.



Need resources on performance measurement and reporting results? This excellent online database of evaluation resources is written in plain English and includes slide presentations with audio, written text and worksheets. It was developed for AmeriCorps members (part of the USA's national service program). If you need to report about your program's progress -- and it doesn't have to have anything to with AmeriCorps -- you will find these resources helpful.



Also see Questions to Ask for a Major Report from the Developing World, which, while created for use in-the-field in the developing world, might also be helpful for any nonprofit or mission-based organization needing to report on program results.

The scramble is already underway for individuals and groups to find volunteering opportunities for the holidays, and it will get more intense with each day as we get closer to the holidays. If you aren't starting right now to find volunteering activities for the holidays, you probably won't find any once Thanksgiving, Christmas, or whatever holiday it is you want to spend volunteering rolls around. Many nonprofits are already turning people away who want to volunteer during the holidays. Some soup kitchens have volunteers reserving to serve food on Thanksgiving six months or even a year in advance!



Start looking now if you want to volunteer during the holidays. In the USA, you have a plethora of online places to choose from:

• VolunteerMatch


• Idealist/Action Without Borders


• Change.org


• ServeNet


• Network For Good


• 1-800-Volunteer.org


• Do Something


• Volunteer Solutions


• Serve.gov

Also, think about creating your own holiday volunteering activity for yourself or your group. You could:

• arrange to do a blood donation drive with the American Red Cross at your workplace, community of faith, civic group, sports facility, or central site in your neighborhood (note that you can't arrange for them to come tomorrow; give them plenty of notice).
  
  
  
  


• arrange to do a canned food drive to benefit your nearest food pantry at your workplace, community of faith, civic group, sports facility, or central site in your neighborhood.
  
  
  
  


• arrange to have a book drive for the local library at your workplace, community of faith, civic group, sports facility, or central site in your neighborhood (however, call the library first, to make sure they accept book donations, and make sure donors understand that their books will probably be sold and the money used to benefit the library, rather than their books becoming a part of the collection)
  
  
  
  


• contact local nonprofit organizations in your area (stopping by in person is better than calling) and find out what activities you, as an individual, or the group you represent, might be able to do (paint a room? put together book shelves for an on-site library? clean up the exterior and do light yard work at a site?). Be prepared to pay for all items (paint, brushes, tools, shelves, furniture, etc.) yourself or to use your own materials -- nonprofits don't have the budget to pay for those items for your one-day, feel good holiday volunteering experience.
  
  
  
  


• contact your local chapter of the Salvation Army, Meals on Wheels and the United Way, as well as any hospice organizations or AIDS services organizations in your area, to see if they need food deliverers near or during the holidays.
  
  
  
  


• Like to sing? Get a group together to serenade volunteers serving food at the local homeless shelter, or people coming in to pick up deliveries for Meals on Wheels, or volunteers at a Habitat for Humanity site. Get permission from the associated nonprofit well in advance -- do NOT just show up. And take no for an answer -- if you are going to be in the way, or your going to delay work too much, your offer may be turned down. You can, ofcourse, also look for opportunities to sing for recipients of service (people in hospice care, people receiving meals at home, etc.) but, again, get permission from the associated nonprofit well in advance -- do NOT just show up.

Nonprofits may require you as an individual or all members of your volunteering group to go through an orientation about the organization. They may require that the names and home addresses of all volunteers be supplied to them (as they would with any volunteers). They may require volunteers to undergo criminal background checks. Don't be offended; respect the policies and procedures of nonprofit organizations regarding volunteer involvement, some of which may be required by law, just as you expect employees to adhere to policies and procedures at your workplace.

The bombing of the guest house in Afghanistan that housed so many United Nations staff has, ofcourse, been very much on my mind. I'm not surprised that the UN is pulling much of its international staff out of Afghanistan or into more secure compounds following last week's deadly attack.



These events are a tragedy for those who lost their lives and even those who survived the attack, but altogether, they are also a tragedy for Afghanistan, as noted this blog by Sarah Bailey: "The ultimate tragedy is that the cost of keeping aid works safe may be the well-being or even the survival of those who rely on their assistance."



UN workers were already incredibly restricted in their movements in the country and interactions with everyday Afghans before this latest attack. When I was there in 2007, I felt like I would go out of my mind being able to walk only within the boundaries of my guest house and my work place, for the most part, except for a handful of acceptable restaurants (and good luck finding a UN driver on your one day off to go to such, especially if you are a woman aid worker in Afghanistan). But since the first attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul in January 2008 (which killed American aid worker Thor Hesla, among others), international aid workers are even more restricted in their movements. For most international aid workers -- at least most aid workers worth their salt -- it's interactions with locals and experiencing the country on a personal level that fuels the drive to be there, to give up family and friends for such long periods in order to serve the region. As safety precautions cut aid workers further off from every day life in the country, Afghans themselves suffer - it's harder to get them the resources they need, as communications channels become so severely limited.



But my greatest fear now is for local aid workers in Afghanistan; most of the people I worked with when I was in Afghanistan were Afghans themselves. My fellow aid workers from Afghanistan provided most of my window into Afghan culture. Their work makes them a target. Some families have stopped allowing women family members out of the house, forcing them to quit their jobs.



It's hard to believe that, in 2007, Afghanistan was so much safer than Iraq (which was why, when offered a job in both places at the same time, I chose the former). Now, almost three years later after that original job offer, things have changed so dramatically. And tragically.



My Afghan women colleagues say that for as bad things have gotten, life is still better for them than it was under the Taliban or under the Afghanistan warlords -- but Afghan women's gains are not holding. Please write your US Representative and your Senators to remind them that the safety and freedom of Afghan women needs to be a priority; every decision made in Afghanistan needs to have their concerns at the forefront.



Thomas, stay safe.