Voluntary Service Overseas

Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)
VSO logo image
Formation 1958
Founder Alec and Moira Dickson
Type International development charity
Location
  • Worldwide
Volunteers
50,000
Slogan "A world without poverty"
Mission "Bringing people together to fight poverty"
Website www.vsointernational.org

Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is an international development charity[1] with a vision for a "world without poverty" and a mission to "bring people together to fight poverty".[2] VSO recruits professionals to work as volunteers, living and working alongside local populations in developing countries. Founded in 1958, VSO has sent over 50,000 volunteer. As of 2015 VSO worked in 23 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.[3]

Working areas

VSO currently works in the following areas:

And has three cross cutting themes that are relevant to all the areas:

Structure and Governance

Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is a company limited by guarantee. VSO has three wholly owned subsidiaries: "VSO Trading Limited" (England and Wales), "British Executive Service Overseas" (England and Wales) and "Beijing VSO Consulting Company Limited", a Chinese-registered, wholly foreign-owned enterprise.[3]

VSO’s governing body is the International Board, currently comprising 10 trustees. The day-to-day management of VSO is carried out by the Global Leadership Team. The Global Leadership Team has operational oversight of VSO’s global work. Each Global Leadership team member is responsible for an area of VSO’s global operations, including finance, human resources and organisational development, and geographical management of Africa Group and Asia and Pacific Group.[3]

VSO is part of the "VSO Federation", an international network of organisations that share VSO’s vision of a world without poverty, in which people work together to fulfil their potential. The VSO Federation comprises VSO (operating as both VSO International and VSO UK), VSO Ireland, VSO Jitolee (Kenya), VSO Netherlands and VSO Bahaginan (Philippines). Each VSO federation member is a self-governing, not-for-profit legal entity. Each federation member (and VSO UK) has nominated a representative to the VSO Federation Council, an advisory body created to advise the International Board on matters relevant to the VSO Federation.[3]

History

VSO was founded in 1958 by Alec and Moira Dickson through a bishop's letter to the London paper,[4] The Sunday Times, as an educational experience overseas for school-leavers, initially only male, before starting university. Volunteers offered unskilled help in return for basic accommodation and pocket money. In 1962, the practice changed to using university graduates volunteers.[5]

By 1980, the unskilled volunteers had been completely phased out and the length of service had been extended to two years.[6] Active volunteer numbers initially dropped to about 750, but by 2003 had returned to about 1,400. Since December 2004, applications to volunteer have been accepted from those between ages 20 and 75, who also must have at least two years' experience in their field. The average age of current volunteers is 43.

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/Uganda (VSO Jitolee), and the Philippines (VSO Bahaginan).[7] In 2004, VSO launched a partnership called iVolunteer Overseas (iVO) in India with iVolunteer, an existing volunteering program of MITRA, an Indian NGO. VSO's structure evolved to become an international federation which now includes Ireland, China and India as well as the above named countries.[8] International volunteers are recruited through all of these bases, and they can be placed in any one of VSO's programmes (e.g. an Irish volunteer working in Nepal, or a Ugandan volunteer working in Tajikistan).[9]

In 2011 VSO, in partnership with Lattitude Global Volunteering, Restless Development, Skillshare International, Progressio, International Service and Tropical Health Education Trust (THET) launched International Citizen Service ICS to provide volunteer placements for 18- to 25-year-olds. The group, funded by the Department for International Development DFID, now includes Raleigh International and Tearfund[10] and will work with 3,000 volunteers annually across 60 countries.[11]

VSO today

Highlights of Voluntary Service Overseas today include:

Advocacy and campaigns

VSO undertakes advocacy locally, nationally and internationally to bring about positive change to policies and practices. VSO campaigns for global justice to help raise awareness of important development issues.

Partnerships

VSO works with local partners in the communities they work with, placing volunteers with these partners to help increase their impact and effectiveness. VSO also works with corporate partners, such as Accenture,[16] and Randstad.[17]

Sharing good practice

LINKS (Learning through International Networking and Knowledge Sharing) activities give VSO partners the chance to go to another country to learn and share good practice by visiting or working with agencies there.[18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Gap yah volunteers not all bad, says new report". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "People first strategy 2010" (PDF). www.vso.org.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Annual Report and Financial statement 2013-14 for VSO International" (PDF). www.vso.org.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  4. ↑ Critical Perspectives on Service-Learning in Higher Education. p. 16. ISBN 9781137383259.
  5. ↑ "Volunteering". University of Bradford. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Good to meet you… Tom Jackson". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "Putting children first: transforming education in Cambodia". VSO Bahaginan. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  8. ↑ "Dublin doctor helping Africans most in need". The Irish Times. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  9. ↑ "History Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)". Official website. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "Tearfund International Learning Zone" (PDF). Tearfund. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Weeden, Clare. Responsible and Ethical Tourist Behaviour. Routledge. p. 44. ISBN 9781136996283.
  12. ↑ "VSO Volunteers". Official website. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  13. ↑ VSO LINKS - promoting volunteering to fight poverty and disadvantage
  14. ↑ "RAISA - Our programme initiatives - About VSO". www.vso.org.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  15. ↑ "I chose to have my twins at 50". ParentDish. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  16. ↑ "VSO Business Partnership Program". Accenture. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  17. ↑ "VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas)". Randstad Holding. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  18. ↑ "What we do". www.vsointernational.org. Retrieved 3 April 2015.

Further reading

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