Mrs Eunice Crane

At VSO, we know that people have the power, courage and desire to help themselves. That’s why we use a unique volunteering for development approach that puts the most marginalised people first, to build a more equitable society. 

Through volunteering for development, we focus first on those who are left out by society – those living in extreme poverty, or with disability and illness, those who face discrimination and violence for their gender, sexuality, or social status. 

These are not passive “beneficiaries” of aid. They are the “primary actors” at the heart of our work. It is from their viewpoint and actions that we seek to define the issues, opportunities, and solutions that deliver sustainable and locally led change. 

Our Volunteering for Development method recognises the importance of relationships in forging a shared understanding and commitment and building collective action to lasting change. 

Through teams of community, national and international volunteers, it brings together a diversity of perspectives and experience to generate insights, innovate ideas and undertake actions that can address the underlying causes to complex problems facing our communities. It inspires and ignites the potential for active citizenship everywhere across the globe to step forward and drive the change that will create a fair world for everyone. 

All our programmes address the root causes of marginalisation by focusing on three areas – what we call “core approaches” - that reliably tackle the structures, systems and conditions that make people vulnerable. These core approaches are fundamental to our Volunteering for Development method, ensuring the people we work with have the confidence and capacity to bring about change in their own lives.