Step By Step > Step 1: VSO Facts

What VSO is all about?

• VSO is an international development charity that works through, and with volunteers.
• We promote volunteering to fight global poverty and disadvantage, and bring people together to share skills, creativity and learning to build a fairer world.
• Instead of sending money, food or clothes, we send people from a range of professions who want to make a difference.
• VSO volunteers come from a range of backgrounds, countries and ages. We recruit volunteers in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Canada, Kenya, The Philippines and India.
• VSO is the largest independent volunteer-sending agency in the world with currently 1,500–2,000 volunteers working in 40 countries throughout Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Eastern Europe.
• We commit to long-term development and partnership rather than short-term emergency relief.
• We respond to needs identified by our partnerships with local government agencies, non-governmental organisations and local community.

How will the money you raise be spent? 

It’s easy to feel that a donation, however big, will be swallowed up and that the difference it would make would be negligible. Have a read and why not even direct people to the pages below. Here you will find a breakdown of how a donation of even £5 can make an enormous difference. Also can you read some volunteer stories about their experiences, and see what programmes VSO are currently running worldwide.

• Step 2: Build a Network
• Step 3:Communicate
• Step 4: Harness the Power of the Internet