Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 10 February, within the framework of the National Festival of Civil Activists, an open dialogue was held on the topic "The movement of volunteers in Uzbekistan". To ensure the inclusiveness of the event for people with hearing impairments, sign language interpretation was organized.

The dialogue, moderated by the Association of Volunteers of Uzbekistan, gathered in offline and online modes over 40 initiative volunteer groups from all over the republic.

The event was attended by such initiative groups as "Time of Miracles", "Downside sport", "Charity Union", "Line of life", "Volunteers of Mehrli Qo’llar", "If not us, then who?", "The universe" "Sun", "Kind Designers", "Breath of Life", "MedClowns", "Food for life", "Sakhovatpesha", "Pokiza insonlar", "Kind People of Karakalpakstan", "Hasharweek", "Volunteers of the Medical Academy", " Medical volunteers ”, Namangan branch“ Istibolli avlod ”,“ Smile ”,“ Wings of hope ”,“ Kind container ”and others.

The session emphasized that 2020 has shown the importance and value of the volunteer spirit on a global scale. From this, it is especially important to unite volunteers and jointly organize work on the competent formation of volunteer activities. To this end, on 4 December 2020, the Association of Volunteers of Uzbekistan was created, which called on all self-initiative citizens to become part of the formation of a better way to support and develop the country’s volunteers.

In the course of their work, the leaders of successful volunteer projects presented the implemented initiatives and spoke about the areas of activity. In a hybrid format of work on online and offline sites, the volunteers voiced the problems they faced in the field of volunteering and offered their solutions. It is important to note that volunteers from Kazakhstan and Russia also showed interest in the event.

Based on the results of the dialogue, recommendations were formulated for the development and strengthening of volunteer initiatives at the republican level, as well as assistance in the training of trainers-mentors from among existing volunteers throughout the country.

The solemn part of this block was the signing of a memorandum between the Association of Volunteers of Uzbekistan and the Ezgu Amal charitable foundation.