Letter from the Director of Programs

Thank you for taking the time to visit our VSO USA website. I’m delighted to introduce you to the work of VSO. 

VSO International was founded over 65 years ago with a vision of the power of volunteers to change the world and recognition that only by standing shoulder to shoulder with the poorest and most marginalized could we begin to understand the challenges that those communities face, and support them to do something to overcome it. 

While much has changed at VSO since that time, this underlying vision of the power of volunteering has not. 

Our volunteering for development method recognizes the importance of relationships in making change happen. The overwhelming majority of our volunteers are national volunteers, taking action in their own countries and communities to make an impact. 

Through teams of community, national and international volunteers in 34 countries, we bring together diverse perspectives and experiences that generate insight and innovation and undertake action to address the root causes of the complex problems facing our communities, from building resilience against climate change to ensuring that education systems provide quality education for all girls and boys.

Our work inspires and ignites the potential for active citizenship everywhere across the globe.

By becoming active participants in civic life, people stake a claim in society and are able to seize the opportunity to become drivers of change and progress. When governments are held accountable and supported to engage with citizens, it enhances their effectiveness in responding to people’s needs and aspirations.

 We are committed to localization. We believe in more than the simple transfer of resources, but rather see long term sustainability and larger impact when working directly with communities, institutions and civil society organizations in our countries of operation. 

We are challenging ourselves to understand our value as a truly global partner, rather than diminishing the resource base available to local actors.

Operationally, VSO is well and truly a global organization, with no one center of power. With a disbursed international leadership team, we work all across the world. For example, some of our programs are led from South Africa, our hub of Global Engagement work is in India, and our implementation teams have a large presence across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. 

We work across time zones and cultures to deliver impact for the marginalized communities that we are here to support across Africa and Asia. To ensure fairness, we work our hardest to hire staff on national terms and conditions wherever they work.

I hope you will enjoy reading about our work and impact here and in our annual impact report, and please do get in touch if you’re interested in partnering with us in the future.

Yours,

Donne Cameron
Executive Director of Programs