Voluntary redundancy?

Press, 7 August 1982, Page 12

Voluntary redundancy?

Volunteer Service Abroad aims to “do itself out of a job” by providing expertise and training to developing countries in the Pacific and South-East Asia. V.S.A. now has 81 volunteers in the field providing educational, health, agricultural, trade, social administration, and commercial skills. Six volunteers are working in Asia and the rest in the Pacific, mainly in the newly independent western Pacific nations, such as Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.

Canterbury is an area from which the service traditionally recruits at least a quarter of its volunteers. The selection co-ordinator. Ms Jennifer Calvert, was in Christchurch this week to recruit and speak to sendee clubs about the functions of V.S.A. Ms Calvert said the service aimed to have 100 volunteers in the field at any one time. Volunteers normally served two-year terms, and although they indicated the country they would like to work in they were placed according to need. The New Zealand aid agency was well known and well regarded, Ms Calvert said. Requests for volunteers usually came direct from governments and at least 10 per cent of those sent elected

to extend their stay. . Each year the service aimed to recruit 40 or 50 new volunteers. More would be taken to keep up with requests but Ms Calvert said finance was a' limitation. V.S.A. got 80 per cent of its funds from the Government and relied on membership fees and public support for the rest. Volunteers ranged in , age from 22 to 67. All needed a specific qualification, a trade or professional skill, that would fill a need in the country to which they were sent. An unqualified person could not be accepted, said Ms Calvert, because he or

she would be doing a local out of a job. V.S.A. provided expertise and training for local people. It aimed to fill a gap while developing nations gained the technological skills of the West. Half of its volunteers were trained teachers.

Agricultural volunteers from New Zealand were much sought after. Many stayed on in the Third World and earned good wages from international groups such as the United Nations, said Ms Calvert. However, as a volunteer the emphasis was on service, not money-making. Volunteers received free accommodation. a living allowance; and a return air fare to New Zealand.

For their work they saw another culture and gained experience and responsibility usually far beyond their years. None had had difficulties getting jobs when they returned to New Zealand, Ms Calvert,said. ft-

Volunteers were carefully screened and once overseas the V.S.A. staff of eight, based in Wellington, kept in close touch. The “family feeling” of V.S.A. was one reason for its success, said Ms Calvert. Larger overseas organisations could not liaise so closely with their wbrkers and this had led to feelings of distance between the groups'and their workers.

V.S.A. has just celebrated its twentieth anniversary. It was set up in 1962 as a group without political or religious affiliations. An active founder member was Sir Edmund Hillary. So far the service had sent about 1200 people into the field from newly qualified students to retired farming couples wanted for rural development programmes. The service was modelled on the British V.S.A. organisation but since it started it had developed a distinctive and a sought-after New Zealand style, Ms Calvert said. A shift in aid emphasis from the eastern to the western and central Pacific nations had occurred as Polynesia had advanced. There could be vacancies for poultry farmers, marine biologists. occupational therapists, or hydrologists.