In our approach to development, the volunteers’ job is not to decide what is best for our Southern partners, but to help the partners achieve their own developmental goals.
In 2009: 523 volunteers
150 Global South partners
Uniterra: a modern international cooperation program
Uniterra, one of Canada’s largest international volunteer programs, was set up as a joint initiative of CECI and World University Service of Canada (WUSC) in 13 countries on three continents:
- Africa: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Guinea, and Senegal
- Americas: Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru
- Asia: Nepal and Vietnam
Uniterra offers different ways for individuals and organizations to help meet the Millennium Development Goals, which include:
- eradicating extreme poverty and hunger
- achieving universal primary education
- promoting gender equality and empowering women
- reducing child mortality
- improving maternal health
- combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- ensuring environmental sustainability
- developing a global partnership for development
To find out more > about the Uniterra program
Partners
Uniterra builds the capacities of partner organizations in developing countries so that they are better able to carry out their social and economic development initiatives. The program promotes multidirectional exchanges of expertise, knowledge, and know-how among Northern and Southern partners. For example, our Canadian partners host volunteers in Canada for training programs or internships and send volunteers to participate in capacity building activities.
Areas of volunteer involvement
Uniterra volunteers play a tangible, hands-on role in poverty reduction work. Their mandates, determined by the local organizations, range from a few weeks to two years in length and fall within one of four sectors:
- basic education
- health and HIV-AIDS
- economic development, agriculture, and fair trade
- governance and gender equality
Want to share your expertise? Work to overcome poverty? Participate in a worldwide solidarity movement? Uniterra needs you!
To become a volunteer, visit the Uniterra program recruitment site.
Testimonial
“My volunteer cooperation experience was a watershed in my personal and professional life. It gave me an opportunity to tell people about another face of Africa, and heightened my desire to be involved in my own community.”
Chantal Havard, former volunteer in Burkina Faso and Vice-Chair, Membership on the Board of Directors of CECI
“In 1989, CECI gave my spouse and I the opportunity to expand our horizons by working as volunteer cooperants in Central Africa. This experience, like the ones CECI has offered to thousands of other Quebecers, was like a journey to another planet. But more pointedly, it was a springboard into the diverse and rewarding world of international development.”
Robert Beaudry, former volunteer in Burundi