Voluntary Service Overseas
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| Formation | 1958 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Alec and Moira Dickson |
| Type | International development charity |
| Location |
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Volunteers
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50,000 |
| Slogan | "A world without poverty" |
| Mission | "Bringing people together to fight poverty" |
| Website | www |
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is an international development charity with a vision for a "world without poverty" and a mission to "bring people together to fight poverty". VSO recruits professionals to work as volunteers, living and working alongside local populations in developing countries. Founded in 1958, VSO has sent over 50,000 volunteer. As of 2015 VSO worked in 23 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
VSO currently works in the following areas:
And has three cross cutting themes that are relevant to all the areas:
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is a company limited by guarantee. VSO has three wholly owned subsidiaries: "VSO Trading Limited" (England and Wales), "British Executive Service Overseas" (England and Wales) and "Beijing VSO Consulting Company Limited", a Chinese-registered, wholly foreign-owned enterprise.
VSO’s governing body is the International Board, currently comprising 10 trustees. The day-to-day management of VSO is carried out by the Global Leadership Team. The Global Leadership Team has operational oversight of VSO’s global work. Each Global Leadership team member is responsible for an area of VSO’s global operations, including finance, human resources and organisational development, and geographical management of Africa Group and Asia and Pacific Group.
VSO is part of the "VSO Federation", an international network of organisations that share VSO’s vision of a world without poverty, in which people work together to fulfil their potential. The VSO Federation comprises VSO (operating as both VSO International and VSO UK), VSO Ireland, VSO Jitolee (Kenya), VSO Netherlands and VSO Bahaginan (Philippines). Each VSO federation member is a self-governing, not-for-profit legal entity. Each federation member (and VSO UK) has nominated a representative to the VSO Federation Council, an advisory body created to advise the International Board on matters relevant to the VSO Federation.
VSO was founded in 1958 by Alec and Moira Dickson through a bishop's letter to the London paper,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 graduates volunteers.
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