 |
|
|
 |
About VSA | |
Become a Volunteer | |
How to Help | |
News & Events | |
About Development | |
Our Partners | |
VSA's Inner Zone | |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
When VSA was formed in 1962, it was very much an organisation of its time.
In 1962, young people in New Zealand, unlike their parents and grandparents, belonged to a generation that had known neither war nor depression. A mood of confidence and optimism prevailed. Many were determined to live a life that revolved around more than getting and spending. There was talk of eradicating world poverty. The challenge was exciting, noble, inspiring. In the United States, the Peace Corps was established in March 1961. Over the next few years, similar volunteer sending agencies were established throughout the developed world.
In New Zealand, the motivation that led to the formation of Volunteer Service Abroad was, broadly speaking, humanitarian. In the last week of March 1962, a New Zealand University Students Association initiative resulted in more than 50 representatives from university and teachers' colleges, church and employer organisations, youth groups, service clubs and government departments meeting to discuss the needs and opportunities for volunteer workers overseas. Prime Minister Keith Holyoake and Opposition Leader Walter Nash addressed the meeting, endorsing the principle of volunteering.
Out of this meeting VSA was born. A cheque from the Government for 2,500 pounds gave the new organisation administrative capacity. In February 1963 Sir Edmund Hillary became President, a position he was to hold for 13 years. It was decided that the new organisation would work in the Pacific and Southern Asia. Within the first year VSA volunteers were working in Thailand and Samoa
In 1964 the school-leavers programme commenced. Over a ten-year period, until the scheme was wound up in 1974, VSA sent 318 seventeen and eighteen year-olds on one-year assignments into South East Asia and the Pacific. The school leavers became media darlings, and for ten years they worked PR magic for VSA. So much so in fact that nearly thirty years later, many New Zealanders still believe that today's VSA volunteers are young people. In fact, in 2004 volunteers were aged between 25 and 74. The average age 48.
By 1968 VSA had 105 volunteers in the field spread across twelve countries, mostly in the Pacific. VSA's purpose was to develop friendship, goodwill and understanding between New Zealanders and the people of the countries to which volunteers were sent. The social and economic good that might eventuate was implied rather than stated. In the 1960s, there was little understanding within VSA of development issues, or how they might best be addressed.
VSA's tenth birthday party in 1972 was a time of celebration rather than review. But real change was looming. Returning volunteers began expressing frustrations, voicing new ideas. The word 'development' entered the VSA lexicon. 'One can't understand development until one understands oppression.', 'Aid without development is not on.', 'If I want to be involved with development, I have to do more than volunteer, otherwise volunteers will be asked for forever.'
In 1974 VSA set a new course. Its objectives were expanded to emphasise a developmental role, and stress, amongst other things, the importance of development education within New Zealand.
In any one year VSA still needs to raise $400,000, although the bulk of its budget continues to come from the government. Since its inception, VSA has enjoyed bipartisan political support. In the 2003/2004 financial year, it received NZ$5.6 million Aid through the NZODA programme.
Between 1971 and 1984, VSA established only two new country programmes - in the Cook Islands in 1977, and in Tuvalu in 1978. In 1985 it opened a programme in Bhutan. More new country programmes followed. Over the next ten years, as the Cold War ended, apartheid fell and relationships within regions changed, volunteer programmes were opened in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Tanzania, South Africa, Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos. A reconstruction programme in Bougainville was established in 1998. A similar programme in East Timor followed in 2001.
VSA's understanding of development continues to evolve. Today, development is seen as a process that should encourage and enable people to participate fully in the decisions that shape their lives. It should encourage equitable distribution and use of resources. It should build the capacity of community-based organisations and strengthen people's initiatives.
More than anything else, development embraces the concept of "we", rather than "us" and "them". In the 1970s development agencies worked for the poor; today, they try much more to work with the poor. The practical effects of this evolution are very real. Forty years ago, most VSA volunteers taught in schools. Today, the range of assignments covers all sectors. VSA's project partners, once mostly host governments, today include a range of NGO's and community organisations.