Encyclopedia > Voluntary Services Overseas

  Article Content

Voluntary Services Overseas

Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) is an international charity. It claims to be the largest non-religious, non-government development charity.

The organization has offices in the UK, Canada, Kenya and the Philippines and also recruits people from Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland, the United States. It works by enabling them to share their skills with local communities in the developing world.

Since its founding in 1958, VSO has sent out around 29,000 volunteers (2001) to work in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

History
It was founded by Alec Dickson as an educational experience overseas for school-leavers 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 1990 the number had risen to 1250. The introduction of shorter placements and opportunities for volunteers to enhance their learning increased participation. In order to meet the growing demands VSO established partner agencies in Canada and the Netherlands.


VSO homepage (http://www.vso.org.uk/)



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Brazil

... Main article: Demographics of Brazil Four major groups make up the Brazilian population: the Portuguese, the original colonisers; Africans brought to Brazi ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 121.7 ms