service - YUVA

Top 5 NGOs in Mauritius Working for Children

We all have a part to play in ensuring our children have bright and prosperous futures. Understanding the power of this knowledge, many NGOs in Mauritius are dedicating their efforts towards bettering the lives of children from all walks of life and advocating for greater opportunities.

In this article, we’ve compiled a list of 5 outstanding organisations that continue to give back to society by fighting child poverty, providing educational programs and more. From literacy training initiatives to helping kids realise their potential – these top 5 NGOs in Mauritius are undoubtedly making an incredible difference in empowering youth around the island nation!

Do you want to volunteer for Maha Shivaratri 2019? Register today!

It is with great pleasure that YUVA wishes to announce that, in collaboration with other organisations, we will be conducting free food distribution on a full-time basis from the 1st to the 4th of March 2019 at Grand Bassin on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri.

Last year YUVA served 250000+ puris, 100000+ juice cups & 25000+ biryani plates for Maha Shivaratri. We’ll live this spirit again!

For any further query, please contact our Programme Coordinator, Roopshika at 2181732.

Donation for Maha Shivaratri 2016

It is with great pleasure that YUVA (Youth United in Voluntary Action) wishes to announce that it will be conducting free food distribution on a full time basis on 4^th, 5^th and 6^th of March at Grand Bassin on the occasion of Maha Shivaratree.

Last year YUVA served 250000+ puris, 100000+ juice cups & 25000+ biryani plates for Maha Shivaratri. We’ll live this spirit again!

We request Mauritians to donate (in-kind or cash) and/or help (as a volunteer) our non-religious, non-profit organisation to make this initiative a success. By contributing to this programme you feel strongly about as a donour/volunteer and engaging creatively with the shape, form and impact of the project, you ensure that a generation of young people never looks back on the possibilities of how they can create positive change and unity.

For further information on how you can donate and/or help, call on 57086868 or email at info@yuvamauritius.com.

This year Maha Shivaratri is on 7 March. Maha Shivaratri is celebrated in a wide variety of ways in different countries where Hinduism is practised, but all are concerned with marking the marriage of Lord Shiva to Parvati. It is a very important Hindu festival and it is suggested that some 300,000 pilgrims celebrate Maha Shivaratri in Mauritius. It involves fasting, praying and making offerings to Lord Shiva and can start up to a month before the actual day.

In Mauritius, all Hindus are also required to walk to the lake at Grand Bassin, called Ganga Talao (or Lake Ganges). Depending on where they live, pilgrims will start walking to Grand Bassin several days before. They are usually dressed in white and may carry a kanwar, a bamboo frame decorated with flowers, bells, statues, etc, varying in size from small personal ones to large ones (from temples) on wheels, pulled along by a number of young men. Once they get to Ganga Talao the pilgrims say prayers and make offerings of food to Shiva, and the other gods represented there. After they have finished at Grand Bassin the pilgrims return home and may spend the night at the temple making offerings and saying prayers (puja).

The crater lake at Grand Bassin was discovered in 1897 by Pandit Gosain Naipual, a priest from Terre Rouge. He dreamt that a holy lake existed in Mauritius and set out to find it, which he did soon after. As people began to find out about the lake, pilgrims started to walk there as part of their celebration for Maha Shivaratri. Much more recently holy water from the Ganges was brought to Mauritius and was poured into the lake, making it even more sacred. At this festival the pilgrims take sacred water from the lake back to the house or temple to pour it over a symbolic statue of Shiva (the Lingum).

5 December: International Volunteer Day

The International Volunteer Day (IVD) mandated by the UN General Assembly, is held each year on 5 December. It is viewed as a unique chance for volunteers and organisations to celebrate their efforts, to share their values, and to promote their work among their communities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), United Nations agencies, government authorities and the private sector.

Apart from mobilising thousands of volunteers every year, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme contributes to peace and development by advocating for the recognition of volunteers and working with partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming.

Through the Online Volunteering service, volunteers can take action for sustainable human development by supporting the activities of development organisations over the Internet. Every day thousands of people are volunteering, online or on-site, contributing to peace and development, working to achieve the MDGs and engaging people to shape the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.

With the theme ”The world is changing. Are you? Volunteer!”, IVD 2015 is challenging every one of us to be part of implementing the newly launched Global Goals, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

On December 5th, International Volunteer Day, we not only celebrate volunteerism in all its facets – but also pay special tribute to volunteers working to implement the new global goals. Through volunteerism the person can impact the sustainable development agenda by mobilising and engaging governments and communities. For IVD 2015, join volunteers in recognising the individuals who are engaged in volunteering their time, energies, and skills to change the world for a better future.

Background

International Volunteer Day is a chance for individual volunteers, communities and organizations to promote their contributions to development at the local, national and international levels. By combining UN support with a grassroots mandate, International Volunteer Day is a unique opportunity for people and volunteer-involving organizations to work with government agencies, non-profit institutions, community groups, academia and the private sector.

The International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution A/RES/40/212 on 17 December 1985. Since then, governments, the UN system and civil society organisations have successfully joined volunteers around the world to celebrate the Day on 5 December.

A focus on partnership and development

Through the years, International Volunteer Day has been used strategically: many countries have focused on volunteers’ contributions to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, a set of time-bound targets to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women.

The organization of International Volunteer Day is generally the result of a partnership between the UN system, governments, volunteer-involving organizations and committed individuals. Representatives from the media or academia, foundations, the private sector, faith groups, and sports and recreational organisations are often involved too.

Resolutions

The General Assembly invited Governments to observe annually, on 5 December, an International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development (resolution 40/212 of 17 December 1985) and urged them to take measures to heighten awareness of the important contribution of volunteer service, thereby stimulating more people in all walks of life to offer their services as volunteers, both at home and abroad.

The United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 52/17 of 20 November 1997 proclaimed 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers (IYV) The year was conceived for the purpose of furthering the recognition of volunteers, facilitating their work creating a network of communication and promoting the benefits of voluntary service.

In 2001, the International Year of Volunteers, the General Assembly adopted a set of recommendations on ways in which Governments and the United Nations system could support volunteering and asked that they be given wide dissemination (resolution 56/38 of 5 December 2001).

On 18 December 2008 the General Assembly decided that on or around 5 December 2011, the International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, two plenary meetings of the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly should be devoted to follow-up to the International Year and the commemoration of its tenth anniversary (resolution 63/153).

The United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution 57/106 of 22 November 2002, called upon the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme to ensure that the potential of International Volunteer Day is fully realised.

– Source: United Nations