Comments on: Go VSO http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/ Back Home Again Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:22:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU hourly 1 By: Misbah http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/#comment-69 Misbah Sat, 08 Sep 2007 19:39:15 +0000 http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/#comment-69 Hi Steve, it's Misbah from the Facebook group. Just wanted to point out for your readers that VSO does have a scheme which 'gap year students' along with other young people aged between 18 and 25 can take part - Global Xchange (funded by the British Council)/World Youth (with different funders, and the model on which Global Xchange runs). There is also the Youth for Development programme. Anyone interested please check them out. Global Xchange/World Youth is not voluntourism; volunteers raise money to take part (which is also part of their own personal development and they are helped with this) and it is an exchange between two communities one from the UK and one from a partner country in which their is a local organisation which VSO works in partnership (which varies team by team). Participants spend 3 months in the UK and 3 months in the partner organisation. I could go but interested people can I'm sure find out more... I just wish VSO would plug this more and it's a shame they didn't when mentioning other 'gap year' schemes (of course VSO's youth scheme is open to people at all stages of 'education')! Hi Steve, it’s Misbah from the Facebook group. Just wanted to point out for your readers that VSO does have a scheme which ‘gap year students’ along with other young people aged between 18 and 25 can take part - Global Xchange (funded by the British Council)/World Youth (with different funders, and the model on which Global Xchange runs). There is also the Youth for Development programme. Anyone interested please check them out. Global Xchange/World Youth is not voluntourism; volunteers raise money to take part (which is also part of their own personal development and they are helped with this) and it is an exchange between two communities one from the UK and one from a partner country in which their is a local organisation which VSO works in partnership (which varies team by team). Participants spend 3 months in the UK and 3 months in the partner organisation. I could go but interested people can I’m sure find out more… I just wish VSO would plug this more and it’s a shame they didn’t when mentioning other ‘gap year’ schemes (of course VSO’s youth scheme is open to people at all stages of ‘education’)!

]]> By: ourmanwhere http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/#comment-23 ourmanwhere Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:14:26 +0000 http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/#comment-23 Thanks Dave. Just been reading your blog too. Good stuff - leaving Vietnam is not easy. There is something about the place that stays with you. Good luck with whatever is up next for you. Thanks Dave. Just been reading your blog too. Good stuff - leaving Vietnam is not easy. There is something about the place that stays with you.

Good luck with whatever is up next for you.

]]> By: Dave http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/#comment-22 Dave Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:20:26 +0000 http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/#comment-22 Hey Steve! I've enjoyed your blogs. I started reading them before taking off to Hanoi this summer for an internship with a law firm. BTW, I met a friend of yours from Hanoi, Anne Marie. I, too, loved Hanoi, and having just returned a few days ago to the US, I am also having a bit of culture shock (though I imagine not as serious as yours). Sorry Nica didn't work out. My aunt lived there for nearly a decade... now she consults for PLAN international in Hanoi, curiously. Anyway... keep up the great work on the blog. Dave Hey Steve!

I’ve enjoyed your blogs. I started reading them before taking off to Hanoi this summer for an internship with a law firm. BTW, I met a friend of yours from Hanoi, Anne Marie. I, too, loved Hanoi, and having just returned a few days ago to the US, I am also having a bit of culture shock (though I imagine not as serious as yours).

Sorry Nica didn’t work out. My aunt lived there for nearly a decade… now she consults for PLAN international in Hanoi, curiously. Anyway… keep up the great work on the blog.

Dave

]]> By: ourmanwhere http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/#comment-19 ourmanwhere Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:00:12 +0000 http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/#comment-19 Perhaps - certainly somebody should be regulating the industry. There needs to be some kind of stamp of approval. I believe that not only are these schems not actually helping I think there is something inherently wrong with charging people cash to volunteer. It's one thing to pay your own costs regarding food and travel. It's quite another to be handing over cash to a third party which will never benefit the local communities you might be working with. Perhaps - certainly somebody should be regulating the industry. There needs to be some kind of stamp of approval.

I believe that not only are these schems not actually helping I think there is something inherently wrong with charging people cash to volunteer. It’s one thing to pay your own costs regarding food and travel. It’s quite another to be handing over cash to a third party which will never benefit the local communities you might be working with.

]]> By: Stephen Newton http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/#comment-18 Stephen Newton Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:55:33 +0000 http://ourmaninnewcastle.com/2007/08/14/go-vso/#comment-18 Interesting stuff. It should be obvious that just as dumping surplus Western grown food can destroy farming in developing countries, so volunteer labour risks putting already impoverished locals out of work, but it isn't. But given that these profitable firms are unlikely to simply go away, maybe the way forward for VSO, perhaps in partnership with other NGOs, would be to initiate some sort of endorsement scheme. Tour operators would be vetted and enabled to market themselves as making a difference. It would be nice little earner for VSO too. Interesting stuff. It should be obvious that just as dumping surplus Western grown food can destroy farming in developing countries, so volunteer labour risks putting already impoverished locals out of work, but it isn’t.

But given that these profitable firms are unlikely to simply go away, maybe the way forward for VSO, perhaps in partnership with other NGOs, would be to initiate some sort of endorsement scheme. Tour operators would be vetted and enabled to market themselves as making a difference. It would be nice little earner for VSO too.

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