Voluntary Service Overseas Research Articles

Project Planning and Performance of Twigire Mumikino Project Implemented by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in Nyamasheke District, Rwanda

Project Planning and Performance of Twigire Mumikino Project Implemented by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in Nyamasheke District, Rwanda

The Interpersonal and the International: Development, Volunteering and Grassroots Diplomacy in the 1960s

This article examines the vexed nature of grassroots diplomacy by tracing the experiences and management of volunteers working in Asia and Africa with Britain’s Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and the United States Peace Corps during the 1960s. Development volunteering blurred the divide between individual bodies and the body politic and rendered the interpersonal relationships of otherwise ordinary individuals into a form of diplomatic encounter. In theory, grassroots diplomacy encouraged positive cross-cultural encounters and overt displays of international friendship. In practice, however, grassroots diplomacy also provided a space for ongoing international tensions around race, development, and neocolonialism to be contested. This article argues that the quotidian behaviour of Western volunteers provided a site of rupture through which alternative discourses and political positions could be advanced, especially by activists in Africa and Asia without access to conventional diplomatic channels. Although grassroots diplomacy was a celebrated ideal in the context of the Cold War and decolonisation, in practice non-elite agency in international relations came to be increasingly regulated by states and non-governmental organisations concerned with defending their nation’s reputation. It could also have serious impacts for individuals whose personal lives were derailed by international incidents.

Perhaps Ivan Illich Was Right?…

One ponders whether, had Thucydides gotten his Athenian contemporary Hippocrates to look at a rough draft of The History of the Peloponnesian War, that ur-text of realpolitik might have included a history-altering version of the Hippocratic Oath. The commandment to “first, do no harm” is facially at odds with the Melian Dialogue and other tenets of Realism. But if included, it just might have leavened the raw-power calculations of war, intervention, security, and conquest that otherwise mark the Thucydidean worldview. General George C. Marshall famously noted that that approach shaped his understanding of geopolitics, as it did so much of Western strategic thinking since Athens. Agnieszka Sobocinska’s book shows that the Oath might also have been usefully applied in the exercise of soft-power known as overseas Western voluntarism. Although sending in the Peace Corps is wildly different from sending in the Marine Corps, nonetheless Sobocinska maps the genesis, spread, reach, and impact of Cold War-era “development volunteering” that constituted what she calls the “Humanitarian-Development Complex” which constituted a species of Western interventionism. Her book fuses the literatures on the two constituent parts—development and humanitarianism—to trace their convergence in the histories of three contemporary initiatives: Australia’s Volunteer Graduate Scheme (VGS), Britain’s Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), and the United States’ Peace Corps. Sobocinska argues that their activities contain a fundamental ambiguity: they could be “a way to end colonialism and colonial attitudes, [or] a means to perpetuate colonial [or neocolonial] influence . . . a way to eradicate racial prejudice, [or] a means to display the supremacy of their own nation, race, or way of life . . . a means towards world peace, [or] a way of waging Cold War” (19–20).

Healthcare providers’ and managers’ knowledge, attitudes and perceptions regarding international medical volunteering in Uganda: a qualitative study

ObjectivesThe study sought to explore the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of healthcare providers and health programme managers regarding the benefits, challenges and impact of international medical volunteers’ clinical placements. Views...

Translational research to support early childhood education in crisis settings: a case study of collaborative working with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar

ABSTRACT This case study used a co-creation approach to evaluate the effectiveness of a translational research strategy in supporting early childhood education. How Mapping Educational Specialist Knowhow (MESH) and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) collaborated to enhance the training of volunteers and learning provision for 1,500 refugee children is explored. The findings highlight that: training empowered a marginalised community to enhance children’s learning; language variation was a challenge; common values enabled effective partnership working between MESH and VSO; maintaining the relationship is vital for developing socio-culturally relevant resources; MESHGuides have great potential although features could be redesigned to increase impact. The strategy addressed United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SGG) 4, to improve the quality of education for all and SDG 5, to enhance gender opportunities for girls and women.

A survey of international medical volunteers' experiences of working with Voluntary Service Overseas in Ethiopia.

Many skilled medical professionals from high-income countries volunteer to work in poor-resource settings. There is, however, little research to assess the views and experiences of such healthcare providers. Our study sought to explore this among Voluntary Service Overseas volunteers working in Ethiopia for one year. An online survey was distributed to all returned international medical volunteers one year after their return to their base country. Most felt that they had impacted the local community in which they worked and reported a positive experience, recommending this to friends or family, but there was a small subgroup whose experience was otherwise. We believe there is a need for more comprehensive, systematic and robust monitoring in order to evaluate the outcomes of medical volunteers’ placements.

How to win friends and influence nations: the international history of Development Volunteering

AbstractThis article traces the personal and institutional networks that facilitated the transnational spread of Development Volunteering in the 1950s and 1960s. Examining Australia’s Volunteer Graduate Scheme, Britain’s Voluntary Service Overseas, and the United States Peace Corps, it destabilizes each nation’s claims to pioneering Development Volunteering, and interrogates the reasons for these claims. Once national frames are removed, broader patterns come into view. This article reveals that Development Volunteering held multiple meanings, as discourses of development, colonialism, and control existed alongside those of youthful idealism and national benevolence. It argues that, by involving ‘ordinary’ people in international development and by re-inscribing colonial-era divisions between the developed and developing worlds, Development Volunteering contributed to the broader process by which colonial discourses were translated into the postcolonial lexicon of development.

Introduction: What is the Unique Contribution of Volunteering to International Development?

This editorial article introduces this IDS Bulletin on the value of volunteering. The issue is based on the global action research project Valuing Volunteering, undertaken in partnership between Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and IDS, which explored how volunteering contributes to poverty reduction and sustainable positive change in Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal and the Philippines, and the factors that prevent it from doing so. Two core research approaches were used to collect and analyse insights about volunteering; participatory systemic inquiry (PSI) and systemic action research (SAR). In total, some 3,700 people reflected on volunteering during the research process. While recognising the issues that many current forms of volunteering can create, this collection of articles highlights the potential of volunteering, when understood as a relational and collaborative endeavour, which is sometimes at odds with the pressures on the sector to professionalise and compete.

Development of early mathematical skills with a tablet intervention: a randomized control trial in Malawi.

Evaluation of educational interventions is necessary prior to wide-scale rollout. Yet very few rigorous studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of tablet-based interventions, especially in the early years and in developing countries. This study reports a randomized control trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a tablet intervention for supporting the development of early mathematical skills in primary school children in Malawi. A total sample of 318 children, spanning Standards 1–3, attending a medium-sized urban primary school, were randomized to one of three groups: maths tablet intervention, non-maths tablet control, and standard face-to-face practice. Children were pre-tested using tablets at the start of the school year on two tests of mathematical knowledge and a range of basic skills related to scholastic progression. Class teachers then delivered the intervention over an 8-weeks period, for the equivalent of 30-min per day. Technical support was provided from the local Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). Children were then post-tested on the same assessments as given at pre-test. A final sample of 283 children, from Standards 1–3, present at both pre- and post-test, was analyzed to investigate the effectiveness of the maths tablet intervention. Significant effects of the maths tablet intervention over and above standard face-to-face practice or using tablets without the maths software were found in Standards 2 and 3. In Standard 3 the greater learning gains shown by the maths tablet intervention group compared to both of the control groups on the tablet-based assessments transferred to paper and pencil format, illustrating generalization of knowledge gained. Thus, tablet technology can effectively support early years mathematical skills in developing countries if the software is carefully designed to engage the child in the learning process and the content is grounded in a solid well-constructed curriculum appropriate for the child’s developmental stage.

G313(P) Establishing a Neonatal Unit in Arba Minch Hospital, Ethiopia

BackgroundNeonatal mortality remains high in Ethiopia at 35/1000, despite improvements in reducing the overall child mortality. Through the RCPCH VSO Fellowship a Paediatric trainee was placed in Arba Minch Hospital,...

G315(P) Contrasting the international paediatric trainees experience

BackgroundThe change in immigration policy in 2006 threatened to significantly compromise the international support to UK paediatric services. Overseas paediatricians helped meet the service needs in the NHS and in...

Jordanna Bailkin. The Afterlife of Empire.

Jordanna Bailkin has written an ambitious book, one that finds space in the crowded field of research on the British Empire and decolonization's effects on the UK. But Bailkin is interested chiefly in neither diplomatic history nor the well-covered relationship between decolonization and migration to the metropole. Rather, she seeks to understand how decolonization was “lived” by longstanding British citizens (to use an anachronistic term), newly arrived British subjects, and that perennially awkward category of insiders-yet-outsiders, white-yet-racialized, and privileged-yet-marginalized: the Irish. This expanded perspective could in principle include innumerable aspects of postwar British life, and a glance at Bailkin's table of contents reveals a long and varied list of topics. The book explores postwar emigration schemes for Britons (particularly to Australia), Voluntary Service Overseas (the VSO), international (Commonwealth) students in the UK, polygamy, and deportation policy as it concerned Irish nationals. Bailkin ties these diverse strands together and links all of them with empire/decolonization through two foci: welfare and expert knowledge produced by large numbers of well-funded postwar social scientists. Methodologically, the author combines social history (including biographical studies of key political actors, social scientists, and average citizens) with public policy history (a detailed focus on the British laws governing these areas).

Two-way development

When I first started working as a Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) nurse lecturer in Malawi, where the focus of health care is often a lack of resources and staff shortages, I realised how important it was for care to be apparent in every patient encounter.

G128 Delivering Basic Newborn Life Support in Ethiopia: Experience from the RCPCH VSO Fellowship

AimsThe aim of the project was to ensure that local staff working in labour and delivery wards had the skills and knowledge necessary to recognise and manage a newborn infant...

Voluntary service overseas/RCPCH fellowships; competencies gained beyond clinical experience

<h3>Aims</h3> To identify the unique training benefits to the NHS of out of program experience (OOPE) gained through the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)/RCPCH fellowship scheme. <h3>Methods</h3> Between 2000 and 2010, 30 Paediatric trainees worked for at least 1 year as volunteers in low income countries within the VSO/RCPCH fellowship scheme. Mid-placement questionnaires, return interviews and presentations, and final placement reports were used to qualitatively assess the competencies gained by trainees during their fellowships. These experiences were mapped to the “General Clinical Competencies” within the RCPCH level 2 and 3 competencies frameworks. <h3>Results</h3> Fellows universally experienced an extensive clinical workload of diverse, unfamiliar and severe pathology, and, in the context of limited diagnostics, developed a greater reliance on their basic clinical skills. Resource limitations and a frequent lack of senior colleagues, however, meant that this experience often did not translate to enhanced UK standard clinical competencies. In addition to clinical experience, all Fellows participated extensively in a diverse range of management, leadership, teaching, research and service development activities, as prescribed by their roles as VSO development workers. These opportunities were far more extensive, at higher seniority and usually had significantly greater immediate impact than equivalent activities in UK training posts. Examples included organising and teaching on resuscitation or ETAT (Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment) courses, representing paediatric departments on hospital board meetings, organising undergraduate Paediatric teaching programs, writing regional clinical guidelines, running clinical audits and instigating changes in clinical systems in response to these findings. In addition, the experience of working with, at best, limited support in an extremely challenging clinical environment resulted in greater development of Fellows9 autonomy, decision making skills, personal integrity and cultural awareness than they had previously experienced in UK training posts. <h3>Conclusion</h3> Although we currently recommend the VSO/RCPCH Fellowship should be undertaken as OOPE, the Fellowship offers an incomparable opportunity for trainees to gain leadership, management, teaching and personal development competencies. These skills are often difficult to gain within UK training posts but are increasingly essential for newly qualified consultants undertaking leadership roles within the NHS.

Doctors are sought to volunteer overseas

The international development charity Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is seeking to recruit 260 healthcare professionals from Britain to volunteer in some of the world’s poorest countries this year and in 2013. The charity urgently needs to recruit hospital doctors, paediatricians, obstetricians, gynaecologists, …

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Have you thought of using your nursing skills in Africa or Asia? If so, check out the nurse section on the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) website

Academic conceptions of a United States Peace Corps

Contrary to popular understanding that the United States Peace Corps stemmed from a spontaneous idea generated on the campaign trail to appeal to young voters, John F. Kennedy’s celebrated proposal for a federally sponsored, overseas volunteer training programme was drawn from models and theories circulated by American academics. This article examines the mechanisms by which academics attained access to federal officials to lobby for the creation of a programme that would employ educators to train citizens to aid the developing world in the aftermath of the Second World War and in response to the Cold War. It further explores the ideologies that drove four influential academics to call upon their universities to redefine their internationalist role by training graduates to perform voluntary service overseas. These four were Maurice Albertson, Samuel Hayes, Albert Ray Olpin and Walt Rostow, and they came from Colorado State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Utah and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The contributions of academics to the foundation of the Peace Corps have largely been unrecognised. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of the modernising goals of the internationalisation project and the relationship between policy‐makers and professors in a critical phase of American educational history as examples of cultural transformation. The examination of intertwined narratives in primary documents from scholars informs this perspective on the private policy‐making and social‐scientific thought that became embodied in the federal Peace Corps agenda.

A Questionnaire Study of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) Volunteers: Health Risk and Problems Encountered

Every year several hundred Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) volunteers are placed in developing countries where they live and work among the local population. This study analyzes the risk and problems encountered by VSO volunteers overseas. Information was collected from 219 returned VSO volunteers (out of 609; response rate 36%) recruited in the United Kingdom, using a self-administered questionnaire. During the period April 2006 to March 2007 volunteers were given a questionnaire by the VSO medical unit in London with a return envelope. Diarrhea was the most prevalent problem (79.9%), especially for the younger volunteers. Skin and dental problems were next most prevalent. More than one in six had experienced accidents and nearly one-fourth acts of aggression (including verbal) or violence. Most (87.5%) lived in regions with mosquito-borne diseases, 11.6% of these had smear positive malaria. Of all volunteers, 11.0% had placed themselves at risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Unprotected sexual intercourse (45.0%) and split condoms (30.0%) were the main sexual health risk factors. Just over one-fourth of volunteers reported ongoing medical/psychological problems on return, the most common being diarrhea (25.0%), skin disease (15.4%), gynecological problems (13.5%), and injuries (9.6%). Volunteers experience a range of health problems during and after their placement in the developing world. Our study shows the importance of (1) predeparture health preparation of volunteers and (2) medical care and advice for volunteers. This advice is also important for travelers in similar conditions such as those visiting relatives, long-term backpackers, and students working in or traveling to developing countries. Further research is needed to help explain some of the findings and study ways of preventing accidents and illness.