V.S.A. Needs Sponsors

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31725, 8 July 1968, Page 10

V.S.A. Needs Sponsors

Young graduates are eagerly sought by Volunteer Service Abroad. Not only are their professional qualifications, as teachers, engineers, agriculturists, accountants, and so on, in great demand in the countries served by V.S.A., but they also bring to the job a blend of youthful enthusiasm and worldly experience essential to the success of many V.S.A. projects. There is no shortage of outstanding youngsters volunteering for service overseas as soon as they leave school, and the organisation’s selection system is so thorough that few of these school-leavers do not measure up to the tasks they are assigned to. Encouragingly, V.S.A.’s call last year for 30 more adults than in the previous year was met, almost in full. Farmers, nurses, and social welfare workers filled most of these extra places; teachers again volunteered in sufficient numbers to make up more than half the adult workers in the field. But vacancies remain for graduates, and for other adults with special skills. The Prime Minister of Western Samoa (Fiame Mata’afa) in March this year appealed for more V.S.A. workers from New Zealand, and Mr Holyoake said at that time that there were vacancies for two mechanics, two engineers, a quantity surveyor, a cost accountant, and two accountants.

Addressing the annual meeting of V.S.A. in Wellington recently, the Minister of Broadcasting (Mr Adams-Schneider) drew attention to the shortage of graduate volunteers. It is no doubt true, as the Minister suggested, that most graduates “are not “prepared to interfere with their career planning”. While there is, rightly, no monetary incentive for a graduate to volunteer to serve overseas, the loss of income he would suffer during his year or more on service is a real deterrent to many a graduate. For obvious reasons, neither the Government nor the V.S.A. can give graduates more favoured treatment than other adult volunteers or school-leavers; but there is no reason why individual graduates should not be sponsored. Some graduates have been sponsored by service organisations, which also sponsor other classes of volunteers.

Professional bodies have not, however, been as active in this field as they might have been—perhaps because the V.S.A. has not approached them. This is one way in which established members of a profession could make it possible for more of their younger members to help the work of V.S.A. It is not widely realised that half the cost of V.S.A.’s activities is paid for by the “ host ” countries, the New Zealand Government contributing a quarter, and the New Zealand public, through V.S.A., a quarter. Many vacancies remain to be filled by “ partial sponsorships ” typically, the payment of no more than the volunteer’s return fare to the country where he is to serve. The partly-sponsored volunteer is paid a salary or living allowance by his host country’s Government A part sponsorship would represent a very small contribution when spread among the country’s 2000 doctors, for instance; and the Medical Association could reserve a suitable post for a medical volunteer on his return from service abroad. If each of the professional bodies in the country sponsored, or partly sponsored, a volunteer, V.S.A. service might soon be accorded among graduates the status that it has already achieved among school-leavers.