The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Office in Belarus, jointly with the Directorate of the 2^nd European Games 2019, held a creative workshop on volunteer engagement on 13-14 February 2019.

Experts from UNICEF headquarters and its Office in Belarus shared their best practices and knowledge of global volunteering with the young people who will work at Europe’s premier multisport event.

Representatives from national sports federations and regional sports officials also took part in the two-day seminar.

“It was full of fun, new ideas and concepts” tweeted UNICEF Belarus. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar, UNICEF representative in Belarus and one of Minsk 2019 Star Ambassadors, noted that this seminar will not be the only one, as the UN organisation, which is the national partner of the 2nd European Games, is planning to hold other gatherings of the kind.

“We believe that after the 2nd European Games we will have a large group of volunteers who will commit to help us with various projects,” Sarwar also added.

For its part, Deputy CEO of the Minsk European Games Organising Committee (MEGOC) Anatoly Kotov stressed that the aim of this joint project is to show how to harness multi-sport events to bring helpful people together and keep them motivated also in the future.

“About 9,000 volunteers are preparing for the Games”, Kotov said. “It is important to create great educational and humanitarian legacies for the 2nd European Games and to preserve this level of volunteer engagement in the future.”

“We also hope to earn recognition and support at the international level”, Kotov added.

Minsk will host the 2nd European Games on 21-30 June 2019. Over 4,000 athletes from 50 countries will compete in 199 medal events in 15 sports. Competitions in eight sports will serve as qualifiers for the Olympic Games 2020 in Tokyo.