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VSO - Sharing Skills, Changing Lives

What we do

VSO is an international development charity that works through volunteers. Our vision is a world without poverty in which people work together to fulfil their potential.

We bring people together to share skills, creativity and learning to build a fairer world.

VSO welcomes volunteers from an ever increasing range of countries, backgrounds and ages. National agencies in Canada, Kenya, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Ireland and India recruit volunteers from many different countries worldwide. This international approach allows us to combine and learn from a rich variety of perspectives.

In all the countries where we work, VSO is represented by a Programme Office. Staff and volunteers in our Programme Offices work together with local partner agencies, and increasingly with the people whose interests VSO aims to serve, to agree a programme of development priorities in their country and region.

How is a programme put into action?

These priorities are then written up into Programme Area Plans, which describe how our services will be put into action with the help of local and regional partners.

These services may include:

Long term volunteering VSO recruits skilled volunteers with professional qualifications and at least two years' experience from a range of disciplines from around the world to live and work in local communities, sharing skills and changing lives.
Specialist Assignments VSO also recruits volunteers who are available at shorter notice, for a shorter period of time. These more specialised assignments are designed to compliment longer term work and can last from just 2 weeks to 6 months.
Youth Volunteering
- Youth for Development (YfD) provides an opportunity for young people to work with our overseas partners and contribute towards the achievement of VSO's development goals.
- Global Xchange (GX) programmes are team-based exchanges for young people aged 18-25. Each team comprises nine from the UK and nine from the partner country. The teams spend three months in a host community in the partner country working together on community placements.
National Volunteering VSO provides support for the promotion, development and strengthening of local and national volunteering. We aim to promote active citizenship and empower people to contribute to the development of their own communities.
Diaspora Volunteering Diaspora volunteering aims to encourage people interested in using their skills and commitment in their countries of heritage.
LINKS - 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 organisations there.
National activities VSO promotes and helps to organise a variety of activities that can help to connect in-country partnerships. Activities can include study tours, themed workshops, inc-country partner exchanges.
Small Grants Volunteers can apply for small grants to help support the needs of their placement.
Advocacy - VSO uses advocacy at a local, national and global level to help encourage policy change.
Global Education / Development Awareness - VSO uses the knowledge it gains from its programmes, primarily through its returning volunteers, to raise awareness of global issues in their home countries.

The role of VSO

The international volunteering programme supports partners to develop placements which deliver their work and meet their objectives, and identifies volunteers from other countries to fill these placements. During their placements volunteers are therefore employed by the partner organisation in the country where they work. The role of VSO is to broker their employment with the partner organisation and to offer support in this employment by, for example:

Helping the volunteers understand what the employers require in the placements
Providing prior training required by the employers so that the volunteers can work effectively in their placements and within the context of the country concerned
Supporting both the volunteers and the employers in-country to maximise the mutual benefit of their partnerships
Making available to the volunteers certain financial and other types of support to enable them to take up their employment.

VSO isn't only about working overseas

Back at home thousands more people give their time to support the organisation. In the UK, a network of 70 local groups stretches from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands. These groups not only support VSO, they also link communities in Britain with some of the poorest parts of the world.

It costs VSO about £15,000 a year to recruit, train and equip a single volunteer. To continue to meet the growing demand for volunteers, VSO requires financial support. Find out more about ways to contribute as an individual, or as a company or organisation.