Editing Voluntary Service Overseas

{{Short description|International development charity}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = VSO
| native_name = 
| image = Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) logo.png
| image_size = 220px
| alt = VSO logo image
| formation = 1958
| founders = Alec and Mora Dickson
| type = [[International development]] [[charitable organization|charity]]
| location = Worldwide
| volunteers = 80,000
| website =  {{url|www.vsointernational.org}} 
}}
'''VSO''' is a not-for-profit [[international development]] organization charity with a vision for "a fair world for everyone" and a mission to "create lasting change through volunteering".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Voluntary Service Overseas |title=A fair world for everyone: Annual report and accounts 2018/19 |url=https://www.vsointernational.org/sites/default/files/VSOannual%20report1819.pdf}}</ref> VSO delivers development impact{{Clarify|reason=Rephrase opaque and nebulous jargon in plain and clear English|date=June 2023}} through a blended volunteer model consisting of international, national, and community volunteers working together to develop the systems and conditions for positive social change.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Voluntary Service Overseas |title=Leave No One Behind: Annual report and accounts 2017/18 |url=https://www.vsointernational.org/sites/default/files/VSO-Annual-Report17-18.pdf}}</ref>
In 2022–23, VSO worked in 35 countries in [[Africa]] and [[Asia]].<ref name=":3" />

VSO currently works in the following core programme areas: 
* Inclusive Education
* Health
* Livelihoods
And through three core approaches that are relevant to all the areas:
* Social Inclusion and Gender
* Social Accountability
* Resilience

In addition, VSO has a youth focus in which young people are both the beneficiaries of social change outcomes as well as the primary actors in creating the change.

==Structure and governance==
VSO (formerly known as Voluntary Service Overseas) is a company limited by guarantee. VSO operates internationally largely through branch offices. Exceptions to this are:
* Voluntary Service Overseas (Ireland) Limited Company Limited by Guarantee, which is a subsidiary of VSO and incorporated as a charitable entity in Ireland.
* VSO India, which has agreements in place with the independent Indian charitable organisation, VSO India Trust. These agreements permit the Trust to carry out VSO's work using the VSO trademark.
* Stichting VSO Nederland, which is a Dutch independent charitable organisation that has agreements with VSO, including a trademark license, and whose accounts were integrated with VSO's as of April 2018.
* Voluntary Service Overseas USA, Inc., a US 501(c) organisation(iii).

VSO's governing body is the International Board, currently comprising seven trustees. The day-to-day management of VSO is carried out by the executive board, which has operational oversight of VSO's global work. Each Executive Board member is responsible for a function of VSO: People, Programmes, Business Development, and Finance.<ref>{{cite web |title=Structure and governance |url=https://www.vsointernational.org/about/structure-and-governance |website=VSO |access-date=23 May 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

==History==
VSO was founded in 1958 by Alec and Mora Dickson through a bishop's letter to the London paper,<ref>{{cite book|title=Critical Perspectives on Service-Learning in Higher Education|isbn=9781137383259|page=16|last1=Deeley|first1=S.|date=25 November 2014}}</ref> ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|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 graduate volunteers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Volunteering|url=http://www.bradford.ac.uk/careers/students-and-graduates/options/volunteering/|publisher=[[University of Bradford]]|access-date=3 April 2015}}</ref>

By 1980, the unskilled volunteers had been completely phased out and the length of service had been extended to two years.<ref>{{cite news|title=Good to meet you… Tom Jackson|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2015/mar/20/good-to-meet-you-tom-jackson|access-date=3 April 2015|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> 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.

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).<ref>{{cite web|title=Putting children first: transforming education in Cambodia|url=http://www.vsobahaginan.org/volunteer/stories/putting-children-first-transforming-education-in-cambodia|publisher=VSO Bahaginan|access-date=3 April 2015}}</ref> In 2004, VSO launched a partnership called {{proper name|iVolunteer Overseas}} (iVO) in India with {{proper name|iVolunteer}}, an existing volunteering program of [[Movement against Intimidation, Threat and Revenge against Activists|MITRA]], an Indian NGO. VSO's structure evolved to become an international federation which now includes [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], [[China]] and [[India]] as well as the above named countries.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dublin doctor helping Africans most in need|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/dublin-doctor-helping-africans-most-in-need-1.2162815|access-date=3 April 2015|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]}}</ref>  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]]).<ref>{{cite web|title=History Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)|url=http://www.vsointernational.org/about/history|publisher=Official website|access-date=3 April 2015}}</ref>

From 2011, VSO led a consortium to deliver the UK government's [[International Citizen Service]] programme that provides international volunteer placements for 18- to 25-year-olds.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=International Citizen Service |title=Annual Report 2016–2017 |url=https://www.volunteerics.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/Final%20ICS%20Report%202016-2017%20PDF_0.PDF}}</ref> The programme, funded by the Department for International Development ([[DFID]]), now includes [[Raleigh International]] and [[Restless Development]]. In 2016/17, 3,090 young people volunteered through the International Citizen Service programme.<ref name=":2" />

In 2017, VSO was awarded a grant of £50 million from the UK's Department of International Development (DFID) for a program called "Volunteering for Development". The three-year initiative aims to improve quality and access to health and education services as well as livelihood opportunities for the most poor and vulnerable, and targets more than 2 million of the poorest and most marginalised people across the globe. The grant supports VSO's vision to enhance effectiveness across a number of vital areas - including in VSO's "core approaches" of social inclusion and gender, social accountability, and resilience. During its first year the project successfully placed 606 international volunteers and 920 national volunteers across VSO's four areas of focus.<ref name=":2" />

==Today==
Highlights of VSO today include:
* VSO supports the delivery of integrated, large-scale education, health and livelihoods programmes in a range of countries. Its programmes reached over 3.5 million people directly in 2022/23<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2023-08-29 |title=VSO Impact Report 2022/23 |url=http://www.vsointernational.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/VSO_Impact_Report_2023_final.pdf |website=VSO}}</ref>
* VSO now works in post-crisis situations and has recently responded to disasters in Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines and Sierra Leone. Most recently it has supported the establishment of a home-based early childhood care and education (ECCE) in emergencies to support refugee Rohingya communities in Bangladesh<ref>home-based early childhood
care and education (ECCE) in emergencies</ref> 
* It supports communities and governments to inform and influence policy dialogues. It recently supported the development of the Africa Union Gender Strategy and the Kenya Special Education Needs Policy.
* In Nepal, VSO has been awarded nearly £10 million for inclusive education work through the UK's Girls' Education Challenge, the world's largest education challenge fund, which targets support for adolescent girls. In its first phase the project Sisters for Sisters' Education introduced to Nepal the first ever peer-based mentoring programme for marginalised girls.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vsointernational.org/fighting-poverty/where-we-fight-poverty/nepal/sisters-for-sisters-nepal|title=Equality in education for girls|date=2018-03-20|website=VSO|language=en|access-date=2019-04-23}}</ref>
* Citizen Led Monitoring is now a key element of VSOs work. In 2017/18 over 20,000 people in Nepal and Uganda were mobilized for awareness raising and accountability on the delivery of the sustainable development goals<ref name=":1" />
* VSO is supporting the creation of national youth platforms in seven of its countries of operation<ref name=":1" />
* It is playing a leading part in the development of a global standard for responsible and impactful volunteering as part of the Forum for International Volunteering in Development.

===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 has corporate partnerships and sponsors.

==See also==
* [[CUSO]]
* [[Doctors Without Borders]]
* [[ECHO (European Commission)#EU Aid Volunteers|EU Aid Volunteers]]
* [[European Voluntary Service]]
* [[Fredskorpset]]
* [[Peace Corps]]
* [[UN Volunteers|United Nations Volunteers]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [https://www.theguardian.com/education/2006/jan/10/schools.uk1 "VSO focuses on senior teachers"], ''Education Guardian'', January 10, 2006
* [https://www.theguardian.com/millenniumgoals/story/0,,1560658,00.html "Eight Ways to Change the World"], ''The Guardian'', 7 September 2005
* [https://www.theguardian.com/uk_news/story/0,,459449,00.html "Women lead as overseas volunteers"], ''Guardian'' March 20, 2001
* [http://briandeer.com/vso-overseas.htm "Brian Deer investigates VSO"], ''London Sunday Times'', April 26, 1998
* [http://grasya.com/2011/07/meet-the-vso-volunteers/ "Meet the VSO Volunteers"] ''Grasya'', July 2011

==External links==
* [http://www.vsointernational.org/ VSO homepage]
* [https://www.vso.ie/ VSO Ireland homepage]
* [http://www.vsousa.org/  VSO USA homepage]
* [https://www.vso.nl/ VSO Netherlands homepage (in Dutch)]

{{charity}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1958 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Development charities based in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:International charities]]
[[Category:International organisations based in London]]
[[Category:International volunteer organizations]]
[[Category:Organisations based in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1958]]