Read some of the latest stories from volunteers in the field.
Joanne Lentfer writes from Bethany Home, South Africa. (PDF)
Volunteers talk about volunteering with VSA
What I learnt… Clo Taylor People in ‘caring’ professions can often find it hard to ‘let go’ of patients/clients, to encourage independence. It’s even harder to do when volunteering in another cultural setting. In a developing country it would appear easier to use our expertise to do things for people rather than doing things with people and then letting go and watching them do things for themselves. That means doing things that are both successful and failures.
If asked what I learned (and you do even more learning than teaching), I reply, "patience and trust in others". I learned to wait for my issues and recommendations. I’d have thought they’d disappeared down a black hole, only to witness them resurface months later as someone else's issues and plans, reworded, reworked, rescheduled on their timeframe but included in local plans and actions. In my business, that's the essence of success - it's indirect but it feels good. - Clo Taylor - Infection Controls Adviser (Viet Nam)
“The values of VSA are of skills exchange. It is a two-way process where the volunteer imparts skills and knowledge, yet inevitably learns so much about another way of doing things, and has to put his or her selfish way of being efficient aside for awhile. So this has been the best way to reassess my values, my life and my priorities, to get involved with totally different cultures and have a good introspective time. To reflect even more on the way I wish to work from now on and how important it will be to choose the way to get involved within the world where I live.” - Elisabeth Degremont - Tourism Adviser (South Africa).
“As a teacher I could have gone to many different countries and earned a bit of money teaching but I wanted something different. I chose VSA because I wanted a different type of experience and I liked the idea of living in the culture and becoming part of the culture.I also thought that if I had certain skills other people could make use of, then I wanted to pass them on.” - Rachael Kavermann - Teacher (Tokelau).
“You do have to accept that, as a foreign health professional, you can’t change the world or do anything quickly. But I made some small changes which I am confident are continuing.” - Sandra Sinclair - Midwife (Bougainville).
“You sow seeds, plant cuttings and graft on new ideas but whether they “take” or not is part of someone else’s future.” - John Gordon - Agricultural Tutor (Bougainville).
"I enjoy very much working with people, learning how they live, their problems, their aspirations, their perspectives on living and working. Also, my perspectives have broadened, resulting in a better understanding of the world we live in." - Bev Wickham (Solomon Islands and Cambodia).
“My attitude to volunteering is not that the recipients should be grateful for our help, but that they have the right to ask ‘what took you so long?’” - John Herd - IT Applications Developer (Vanuatu).
Clo Taylor