VSO is an international development agency with 60 years’ experience of addressing poverty and disadvantage through our unique approach of working through volunteers in 24 countries in Asia and Africa. By working closely over time with carefully selected partners – from grassroots organisations to government ministries – volunteers provide the right support to help ensure that local development efforts deliver lasting positive social change. Not only do we recruit international expert volunteers from all over the world, we are increasingly working with skilled national volunteers in their own countries and South to South.

We work with dedicated corporate and Parliamentary volunteers, and youth through the International Citizens Service (ICS). Our volunteers catalyse change, partnering with communities, organisations, government and businesses. Our programmes focus on the health, education and livelihoods of the most marginalized in society. Our work is underpinned by three core approaches: social inclusion, resilience and social accountability.

Volunteering provides the foundation for systemic and sustainable change, through participation, empowerment, social action, ownership and accountability. We enable people to play a central role in development.

VSO builds programmes that support educators, governments and communities to ensure every child enjoys quality education and life-long learning opportunities that enable them to realise their full potential. Our programmes ensure every child has right to quality education and protect children from violence, exploitation and any kind of abuse.

Last year VSO’s education programmes supported over 900,716 children to access quality education. VSO is part of the Global Campaign for Education, is a member of International Advisory Committee of UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), the Girls Not Bride coalition, is a member of Asia Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism (AP-RCEM), is a technical working group member of Education 2030, is a member of CCNGO, has partnerships with African Union and South Asia Initiatives Ending Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), is a member of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 and part of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies amongst other global, regional and national partnerships across the sector to improve education practice and provision.