International Voluntary Services
| Founded | 1953 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Mennonite, Brethren and Quaker churches |
| Dissolved | 2002 |
| Type | Private international development organization |
| Location | |
|
Area served
|
16 countries |
| Method | Volunteerism |
International Voluntary Services Inc., (IVS) was a private nonprofit organization that placed American volunteers in development projects in Third World countries. IVS had volunteers in Algeria, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Laos, Nepal, South Vietnam and other countries. Despite the organization's roots in Christian pacifism, it operated on a nonsectarian basis, accepting volunteers regardless of their religious beliefs.
International Voluntary Services is a private, non-profit organization designed to promote "people-to-people" cooperation in improving health, productivity and living standards and fostering better understanding among peoples. It is a mechanism for uniting the energies of individuals and private organizations, and of providing program direction and administrative services for foreign service projects. Some IVS projects are sponsored and supported entirely through private contributions and others may be operated in cooperation with governmental or international agencies.
With this declaration, IVS was founded in 1953 by Mennonite, Brethren and Quaker organizations. It began a 50-year history of international development. The first project was when two young men were sent to Egypt to help improve poultry and dairy farming among the farmers of Assiut.
An office was opened in Iraq, and teams worked in village sanitation, nursing, home construction, and agriculture. In Nepal, a training school was set up for local community development workers. In Liberia, a large team of teachers taught at the elementary level. And in Vietnam, a very successful resettlement and agricultural development was begun. Other country locations that were started in this period were Jordan, Cambodia, Laos, and Ghana.
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