Australian Volunteers International

Since 1951 thousands of volunteers from all over Australia have worked in developing countries across the world.This is the story of the organisation that made this possible, the Overseas Service Bureau later known as Australian Volunteers International. From its origins as a community-based association expressing solidarity with people in newly independent countries, it grew into a significant organisation managing a suite of international development programs.The organisation's activist impulses and principles were evident as it responded to the critical international issues of the times. It supported opponents of apartheid in Southern Africa, worked in Cambodia when Australia had no diplomatic representation there and in Vietnam when Australian aid had been suspended, nurtured relationships with Indonesian NGOs during Suharto's reign, supported civil society across the Pacific Islands, and provided significant and timely support for East Timor's self-determination.This book explores the organisation's growth with increased government funding and the accompanying challenge of maintaining its own values and identity in an era when decolonisation presented increasingly complex demands.

"Australian Volunteers International is an organisation helping to solve problems in countries experiencing difficulties.This interesting book explains how it helps those in need. If provides information on: its work and history its core values where it works around the world a timeline of its activities its main concerns, campaigns and classic actions the people who work for the organisation ideas for what you can do.Four profiles of individuals from around the world who work

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 63. Chapters: Australian Volunteers International, Building a Future, Canada Corps, CCIVS, Concordia (Youth Service Volunteers) Ltd, European Voluntary Service, FK Norway, Geekcorps, Habitat for Humanity, Habitat for Humanity Ireland, Hermitage Volunteer Service, Hope Development Volunteers, Humanity World International, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, International Voluntary Services, InterVol, Medecins Sans Frontieres, NASHI, NetCorps, One Heart Source, Operation Crossroads Africa, Peace Corps, Platform2, Service Civil International, Service Nation, Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity, United Nations Volunteers, United Way Worldwide, VIA (Volunteers in Asia), Voluntary Service Overseas, Volunteer Service Abroad, Worldwide Helpers, World Friends Korea, Young Adult Volunteer Program. Excerpt: (MSF) (pronounced ( listen)), or Doctors Without Borders, is a French secular humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization is known in most of the world by its French name or simply as MSF, but in Canada and the United States the name Doctors Without Borders is commonly used. In 2007 over 26,000, mostly local, doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, logistical experts, water and sanitation engineers and administrators provided medical aid in over 60 countries. Private donors provide about 80% of the organization's funding, while governmental and corporate donations provide the rest, giving MSF an annual budget of approximately US$400 million. was created in 1971, in the aftermath of the Biafra secession, by a small group of French doctors and journalists who believed that all people...

Since the early 1950s Australian Volunteers International has been at the forefront of assisting people-centred development projects and programs around the world. Their work focuses on reducing poverty, providing health and education services, promoting human rights and gender equality, and protecting the environment. The beautifully produced new book 'A Place in the World: Stories from Australian Volunteers International' celebrates the achievements of AVI and honours the amazing work of over 7,000 volunteers who have given a significant part of their lives to assist in global development as well as acknowledging the countries and organizations that have hosted the volunteers.

From the 1950s, tens of thousands of well-meaning Westerners left their homes to volunteer in distant corners of the globe. Aflame with optimism, they set out to save the world, but their actions were invariably intertwined with decolonization, globalization and the Cold War. Closely exploring British, American and Australian programs, Agnieszka Sobocinska situates Western volunteers at the heart of the 'humanitarian-development complex'. This nexus of governments, NGOs, private corporations and public opinion encouraged continuous and accelerating intervention in the Global South from the 1950s. Volunteers attracted a great deal of support in their home countries. But critics across the Global South protested that volunteers put an attractive face on neocolonial power, and extended the logic of intervention embedded in the global system of international development. Saving the World? brings together a wide range of sources to construct a rich narrative of the meeting between Global North and Global South.

For Australians and New Zealanders wanting to explore the options of working overseas in a voluntary capacity, this book provides a comprehensive overview of what to expect. Both long-term placements and short-term experiences, such as workcamps, are covered. There are three main sections: development issues (including security), organisations in Australia and New Zealand offering opportunities and advice from those who have 'done it'. The author, Peter Hodge, taught in Zimbabwe for two years as an Australian Volunteers International volunteer.

An innovative history of how volunteers helped build a global consensus that Western development intervention across the Global South was desirable, even as critics in aid-recipient nations suggested it was a form of neocolonialism. It will benefit scholars and students of history, development studies and international relations.

One in five Australians over 15 works not for pay, but for other rewards. Enthusiasm, passion and humour infuse these stories that reflect the interests and concerns of all Australians - our love of sport and the arts, interest in the environment, justice, health, education etc. 2001 will be the International Year of Volunteers.