A World of Caring: U.N. Issues 6 Stamps to Mark the International Year of Volunteers

To celebrate the International Year of Volunteers, the United Nations Postal Administration last month issued six commemorative stamps.

The United Nations General Assembly voted in 1997 to declare this year a time when volunteer contributions would be recognized and promoted worldwide.

The stamps are mostly decorative; they can only be used to mail materials from United Nations offices.

The designs on the stamps are based on works created for “One Heart, One World — International Exhibition of the Heart,” a traveling display of art and poems sponsored by the United Nations.

The exhibit featured artworks that were designed to illustrate poems written by people with disabilities.

Following are the artists and paintings featured on the stamps:

• Nguyen Thanh Chuong, a Vietnamese artist, created an oil painting to accompany “Bridges,” a poem by Tran Quoc Minh, a resident of Vietnam
• Ernest Pignon-Ernest, a French artist, created a work of cinnabar on drawing paper to complement “Ignored Olympiads,” by Michèle Delmond-Gaudard.
• Paul Siché, of Lyon, France, used gouache on illustration board to complement a poem by Simone-Amélie Boinot, of France, who wrote “Poetry, my sweetness.”
• Ikko Tanaka, a Japanese designer, made a computer graphic to reflect the message of “Hands,” by Shiho Ogasawara, a Japanese 16-year-old.
• John Terry, a painter, composer, writer, puppeteer, and actor in Sydney, Australia, created a mixed-media work using crayon, pastel, and colored ink and pencils to complement a poem called “The Electric Dance,” by Katharine Annear, a 26-year-old resident of Adelaide, South Australia.
• Jose Zaragoza, of Brazil, painted a work that depicts a poem called “Weather,” by Fabrizzio de Francesco, a 21-year-old resident of São Paulo, Brazil, who is developmentally disabled.

Information about the International Year of the Volunteer can be found at http://www.iyv2001.org.

Information about the stamps can be obtained from the United Nations Postal Administration, P.O. Box 5900, Grand Central Station, New York, N.Y. 10163; (800) 234-8972; fax (212) 963-9854; unpa@un.org; http://www.un.org/Depts/UNPA.