Media releases > International Volunteer Day

December 5 is International Volunteer Day

Do your bit in the international effort to make our society, and our world, a better place!

Five fast facts you didn’t know about international volunteering and VSO:

1. VSO recruits volunteers not only from the UK but also Canada, India, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands, Philippines and Uganda. VSO has more African volunteers working in Africa than British! Anie Taganile from the Philippines is a VSO volunteer in Kenya. She says: 'I wanted to volunteer because I wanted to broaden my horizons and see what’s happening in other countries.'
2. 20 percent of VSO volunteers are over 50, and the average age of VSO volunteers is 38. The oldest volunteer is a lady from Devon working in Cameroon who is 73. She’s on her third VSO placement having volunteered previously in China and Papua New Guinea.
3. Nearly a quarter of VSO placements are people with skills in business and management. Ihona Hirving was a management advisor for an organisation in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She says: 'I believe that more people from the Western world, particularly from the business sector, should become VSO volunteers because they have so much to offer organisations in the developing world.'
4. VSO runs two volunteering programmes for young people aged 18-25; Global Xchange is a six month exchange between the UK and a developing country, teams of 18 young people are currently working on community projects in Hounslow, Birmingham, King’s Lynn, India and Pakistan. Youth for Development is a one-year placement. There are currently 40 volunteers overseas who are working in areas like IT, fundraising, youth work, music teaching and disability rights in countries from Cambodia to Zambia.
5. VSO is promoting volunteering in other countries such as Ghana and Kenya where traditionally volunteers worked just in their own communities. Eve Lwembe from VSO Jitolee in Kenya says; 'People want to give back to society. Some want to volunteer but just don’t know how to or where to go. That is where VSO comes in.'    

And one bonus: In 2004 VSO was awarded best international charity at the Charity Awards for its efforts in globalising volunteering.

Editors' notes

• For more information about volunteering with VSO, visit vso.org.uk/volunteering.
• For more press information and interviews please contact Catherine Raynor. 
• To speak to VSO volunteers about their experiences overseas you can call them on 0845 603 0027, weekdays between 6-9pm.