The Power of ‘We’

It’s exactly twelve months since I arrived back in the UK, having spent the previous 2 years volunteering in a remote village in north-west Cambodia.  It’s also the anniversary of when I started blogging again, thanks to the powerful prompt of the annual Blog Action Day.

So what better time to reflect on the most challenging and rewarding decision I ever made - to volunteer with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)?  And what more pertinent question than how does VSO embody this year’s Blog Action Day theme, ‘the power of we’?

For a start VSO is about overcoming poverty – it brings together people from very different backgrounds and helps them to work together for a greater good.  It may be ungrammatical, but surely that, if anything, is the ‘power of we’?

What’s more, this is done very specifically at the invitation of and in partnership with local organizations.  Rather than dipping into areas where outsiders feel there’s a need, we got together with local people and agreed priorities.  

Perhaps most importantly, VSO – I think uniquely amongst major development organizations – works through volunteers.  No city-centric 4x4-driving ex-pats here – rather, professionals getting right out there to share their skills to help change lives.  I do believe there’s a distinction - a voluntary worker can create a different dynamic with local colleagues than a salaried employee.  In short you close the gap by living and working like your co-workers – no more ‘them and us’, just ‘we’.

I don’t pretend it’s a perfect organization.  There is much to do to focus on the areas of greatest need among and within countries (I doubt Cambodia is still in the ‘most needy’ category - it’s now on the gap year and even boutique honeymoon circuit!).  And modernization of a bureaucracy takes time, as seen through lumbering systems, hesitation in embracing openness, and tardiness in rising to challenges such reducing the wasteful turnover from failed placements or relentlessly ensuring resources are directed at the sharp-end.  Most of all VSO needs to start measuring success by outcomes in overcoming poverty rather than just by the number of volunteer bums on floors (seats - you’d be lucky!).   

But I’m here to praise not criticize – I think VSO is getting there, and is a fundamentally brilliant organization, one I am proud to be associated with.  That’s why, now I’m in the UK for a while, I’ve agreed to lead my local supporter group - and why Katja and I may even offer our services as volunteers again in the future. 

Having both enjoyed life-changing experiences during our placements (including, of course, having met each other!), we feel we are in a strong position to recommend VSO as an organization which really embodies the principles of volunteering, of working in partnership, and of helping the poor to help themselves – truly, ‘the power of we’.