Voluntary Services Overseas
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Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is an international development charity that works through experienced volunteers living and working as equals alongside local partners. It is the largest independent (non-governmental) volunteer-sending organisation in the world.
VSO has offices in the UK, Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands, Kenya and the Philippines and a recruiting partner in India; as at December 2004, it has volunteers of 14 different nationalities on placement. Since its founding in 1958, VSO has placed over 30,000 volunteers (2004) in developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe.
History
It was founded by Alec Dickson through a bishop's letter[1] (http://briandeer.com/vsoletter.htm) to the London Sunday Times as an educational experience overseas for school-leavers, initially only boys, before starting university. Volunteers offered unskilled help in exchange for basic accommodation and pocket money. In 1962 the more recognised scheme of using 'qualified' volunteers came about. By 1968 VSO had 1420 volunteers overseas.
By 1980 the unqualified volunteers had been phased out and the period overseas had extended to two years, with a more professional approach. Active volunteer numbers initially fell to around 750 but by 2003 the number had returned to around 1,400. As at December 2004, applications to volunteer are accepted from people aged between 20 and 75, with at least two years experience in their field, and the average age of current volunteers is 38. Unlike almost every other organisation of its type, VSO places no restriction on the nationality
In the early 1990s, in order to meet growing demand for highly specialised and skilled volunteers from its partners in developing countries, VSO established partner agencies in Canada, the Netherlands, Kenya and the Philippines, and, in 2004, launched a partnership called iVolunteer with an existing Indian NGO, MITRA. VSO currently recruits international volunteers through all of these bases and they can be placed in any one of VSO's programmes (e.g. a Canadian volunteer working in Nepal, or a Ugandan volunteer working in Mongolia). In addition VSO supports a number of national volunteering programmes (including schemes in India, Ghana, Kenya and others), and acts as a 'knowledge broker', bringing local grassroots organisations together to share learning and best practice, for exmaple through the Regional AIDS Initiative of Southern Africa, with a network of partners in 7 southern African countries. Also, several large companies, including Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SAP and others, second some of their staff through VSO to work directly on international development projects. VSO's merger with British Executive Service Overseas (beso) in March 2005, a smaller charity with similar aims, is likely to further increase direct involvement of business in international development work.
At the UK Charity Awards in June 2004, VSO was named International Development Charity of the Year, with judges citing VSO's innovative approach to international development and volunteering.
A freelance reporter, Brian Deer, wrote an essay criticising VSO's approach to international development work, based on a visit to Ghana in 1998. It can be found here (http://briandeer.com/vso-overseas.htm)
See also
External links
VSO homepage (http://www.vso.org.uk/) VSO Ireland homepage (http://www.vsoireland.org/) VSO Canada hompage (http://www.vsocanada.org/) VSO Netherlands homepage (in Dutch) (http://www.vso.nl/) VSO Bahaginan homepage (Philippines) (http://www.vsobahaginan.org.ph/) VSO Jitolee homepage (Kenya) (http://www.jitolee.org/) iVolunteer homepage (India) (http://www.ivoindia.org/) Volunteer Service Abroad (New Zealand's equivalent of VSO) (http://www.vsa.org.nz/) Australian Volunteers International (Australia's equivalent of VSO) (http://www.australianvolunteers.com/)