UNA-Canada is delighted to announce that it has opened a charitable pooling account with Aeroplan and is launching a Miles Donation Campaign Canada-wide, running August 15 - September 15, 2011 to support its internship programme Professional Placements. These donated miles will be used to fly young Canadians abroad to undertake internships, primarily within United Nations organizations, all over the world.

The experience for the young Canadians who take up these internships is life-changing for them, and deeply enriching for the UN offices in which they have worked. They truly get to make a real contribution to the work of the UN. The programme offers an opportunity for our interns to make contacts abroad, to provide needed assistance in other communities, to gain meaningful work experience, to create friendships, and to play a role in strengthening Canada's influence abroad. This programme can also be looked upon as an investment in Canada's foreign policy of the future. The participants return well-primed to occupy positions of importance in Canadian government, civil society and industry. And they leave behind tremendous goodwill for Canada and Canadians, which is out of all proportion to the cost of their experience.

Our interns are amazing young professionals who are willing to invest not only their time but their own resources for this unique experience in furthering their passion for becoming knowledgeable and active global citizens. Their placements are 100% self-funded for transit and living expenses for 6-months abroad. Many struggle to find such resources and seek support.

Aeroplan Miles Donations will help them get there.

Donate your Aeroplan Miles to the UNPP programme.

Pledge forms must be signed and sent to UNA-Canada. They can be scanned as a pdf and sent:

- by email to UNPP Project Officer Lara Hill at lara.hill@unac.org
- by fax to (613) 563-2455
- by mail to: UNA-Canada UNPP, 300-309 Cooper Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 0G5

This partnership with Aeroplan is time-sensitive. UNA-Canada must receive pledge forms between August 15 and September 15, 2011.

Press release on Aeroplan-UNPP partnership for year 2011.

Please note that Aeroplan donations are not eligible for a charitable tax receipt.

Make a financial donation to the UNPP programme on-line
(select Project: UN Professional Placements from the drop-down list of available funds).

Funds raised for the overall programme will help support our young interns. Such donations are 100% eligible for a charitable tax receipt.

Please note that such financial donations may NOT be specified to subsidize funding of any particular intern and then also receive a charitable tax receipt (as per Revenue Canada rules around charitable donations). Donations made on-line will be used to support the programme as a whole and will subsidize various interns as selected by UNA-Canada.

If you wish to subsidize a specific intern who has been successfully matched with a UN placement through our programme, such donations must be sent by mail to UNA-Canada at: UNA-Canada UNPP, 300-309 Cooper Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 0G5. Please be sure to identify the intern's name. No charitable receipt will be issued.