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VSO celebrates 50 years of Londoners volunteering overseas

Today (14 March 2008), VSO marks 50 years of Londoners volunteering in developing countries by celebrating London’s volunteering footprint on the world. VSO is the world's leading international development organisation working through skilled volunteers and, as part of its festivities, will host an anniversary event at The Royal Festival Hall on Saturday 15 March.

The event will include an address by VSO’s president Jonathan Dimbleby and a panel discussion chaired by BBC Newsnight presenter, Emily Maitlis, with participants including Harriet Lamb, Director of the Fairtrade Foundation; Richard Dowden, Director of the Royal African Society; and activist Peter Tatchell. Douglas Alexander MP, Secretary of State for International Development, will be the keynote speaker at the event.

From Belize to Bosnia, Cambodia to Cameroon, Macedonia to Malaysia, 2,547 Londoners have volunteered in 52 countries in the 50 years since VSO was set up. During that time, the type of person volunteering has changed greatly to meet differing needs. From the original ‘gap year’ students of the 1950s to highly experienced volunteers today with an average age of 41, VSO volunteers skills have progressed from a keenness to do something worthwhile to a much more strategic emphasis on tangible, transferable professional skills. Indeed, London’s volunteers have shared skills and experience right across the globe from occupations as diverse as primate conservation, land rover mechanics, woodwork design and technology, entomology, marketing experts and sexual health researchers. Alongside their contribution to developing countries overseas, returned volunteers are increasingly getting involved with community projects upon their arrival back in London.

Londoners, along with volunteers from an increasing number of countries, have done much to help VSO meet changing global needs across the last five decades:

• 1960s: VSO works with victims of leprosy and supports countries preparing for decolonisation. London volunteers were part of the group in Malawi, working to tackle leprosy in the region at this time.
• 1970s: VSO focuses more on professional skills as it places its last school leaver overseas.
• 1980s: The average age of a VSO volunteer rises to 28 and 1,125 volunteers are overseas.
• 1990s: VSO is invited to help rebuild the destroyed education system in Rwanda, post genocide and at the end of the decade launches VSO Business Partnerships, enabling companies to release staff for placements of between three months and two years.
• 2000s: VSO begins recruiting volunteers from Kenya, Uganda, India and the Philippines in recognition that people living in developing countries also have skills and experience to share and a right to participate in volunteering.

Jonathan Dimbleby, President of VSO said:

"I've been involved with VSO for many years. What is essential, and what I've seen time and time again, is the on the ground partnership and genuine sharing of skills. The impact on the individuals and organisations with whom we work is far greater and far more sustained than you might imagine of a charity of VSO's size. Relationships are forged that endure. Relationships that are extremely useful in both countries.

There is no question that people who do VSO find it a life changing experience, as anyone who has done VSO will testify. Whether they belong to an earlier generation when volunteering was done in a much more simple way, or whether they are high fliers from business or public sector doing a short term placement today, they are hugely affected by it and it changes their world perspective. They may have been sympathetic before, but after volunteering they see the country they volunteered in as part of a set of greater challenges globally. They become ambassadors for internationalism and this could not be more important than now, amongst the backdrop of global challenges we face."

To find out more about volunteering with VSO and the 50th anniversary event on Saturday go to: www.vso.org.uk or call 020 8780 7500

ENDS.

For more information, footage and stills or to set up an interview with Jonathan Dimbleby and a returned volunteer please contact George Ames, 020 7403 2230, george@forster.co.uk

Notes to Editors

• VSO is the world's leading independent international development organisation working through skilled volunteers around the world.
• www.vso.org.uk
• For London’s volunteering footprint over the last 50 years and case studies see separate sheet.
• Archive broadcast quality footage and stills are available of VSO through the ages.
• VSO’s anniversary event in London will take place on Saturday 15 March 2008 at The Royal Festival Hall, London. VSO President Jonathan Dimbleby will host the celebrations and there will be footage from around the world, interviews on stage with guests including VSO’s Ghana country director, and Douglas Alexander MP, Secretary of State for International Development.