We would like to thank each of our volunteers who made a difference, who transcended all cultural, linguistic, and geographic boundaries, who understood that benefit of society is more important than personal benefit, and who still make our mission a part of their every day lives.
When International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 17, 1985, it opened the door for individual volunteers, communities, and organizations, giving them an opportunity to promote contributions to development at the local, national, and international levels. Since then International Volunteer Day (IVD) has been held each year on December 5. The idea of IVD is to make each volunteering effort countable – it is both an opportunity for volunteering organizations and individual volunteers. In 2012, United Nations Volunteering (UNV) launched a Five-year IVD Strategy, to make IVD more globally recognized and a grassroots ‘owned’ international day. Since then, over 64 million volunteering actions have been counted and UNV still raises awareness about the contribution of volunteerism to peace and development, and promotes the integration of volunteerism through the Volunteer Action Counts campaign.
To show how ordinary people are volunteering their time, energy, and skills to improve the way they are engaged at local, national, and global levels, Volunteer Action Counts established the State of the World’s Volunteerism Report, which is the first global review of the power of volunteer voices to help to improve the way people are governed. What is important for us to understand is that the main focus of IVD is not only celebrating volunteerism but also paying special tribute to people’s participation in making a difference. Every one of us can be a volunteer, and this also should bear awareness and pride that we are all included in decision-making processes which ultimately create a space for participation that leads to stronger governance, social cohesion, peace, love, and sustainable development. Our volunteers showed great commitment and compassion in their engagements, which led them to struggle the poverty, illiteracy, gender discrimination, hunger, disease, and other challenging issues, to make the world a more peaceful and unified place for living.
We would like to thank each of our volunteers who made a difference, who transcended all cultural, linguistic, and geographic boundaries, who understood that the benefit of society is more important than personal benefit, and who still make our mission a part of their everyday lives.
Join us as we #Raise1ToPlayAs1 and support Play for Peace clubs around the world! 
