VSA volunteers sent to 13 countries
Anne de Bres, a nurse with VSA in Quy Nhon, Vietnam, helps a new mother
VSA is Volunteer Service Abroad, a New Zealand non governmental and non political organization which places 121 volunteers in 13 countries. On 5 November 2009 ELTO officials visited the Wellington Head Office of VSA. Piseth Som from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Cambodia reports.
VSA sends 50 percent of its volunteers to work in the Pacific because it closest to New Zealand. Twenty-five percent go to Asia and twenty-five percent to Africa .
Ms Mui Ngah Lee, Programme Manager for Asia explained the VSA programme in Asia. Twenty-nine volunteers are sent to work in Asia. Cambodia is its largest programme, which has 13 volunteers working in three provinces. The second largest is Vietnam which has eight volunteers. VSA sends four volunteers to work in Bhutan and Lao PDR and Timor have two volunteers each.
The mission of the volunteers is to work with local communities in developing countries to help them achieve their own goals and solutions by sharing skills, energy, and experience.
VSA selects skilled volunteers for specific assignments that have been drawn up in consultation with partner organisations overseas. All assignments are two years in duration and are based on the principle of skills-sharing. - committed volunteers from Aotearoa New Zealand working alongside committed local people.
Furthermore we had a nice afternoon break with VSA staff. It was good English speaking practice as I talked with Caroline, who has worked there 20 years. She provided me with more information about VSA. She has been to Cambodia twice and Vietnam several years ago.
In addition this was a very good chance for us to gain more knowledge and learn from VSA’s experiences. I very much enjoyed improving my English at this workplace visit.