Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) was registered in Tajikistan in September 2008 and already during this short time VSO has contributed greatly to Tajik-UK relations. Responding to requests from state bodies and local organisations, VSO currently has six serving long-term specialist volunteers in-country and has already welcomed eight specialists on shorter term training assignments. For more information about these volunteer placements and other activities, please visit this webpage again!
VSO is the world’s leading independent international development organisation that works through volunteers to make a difference. VSO's high-impact approach involves bringing people together to share skills, build capabilities, promote international understanding and action, and change lives to make the world a fairer place for all.
Photo: Matthieu Paley/ VSO
VSO volunteers work like mentors alongside local government and civil society organisations, helping them to respond to challenges they face, and so enhancing existing work that is done to make a lasting difference to the lives of vulnerable groups. Since 1958, VSO has recruited, prepared and deployed 43,000 experienced volunteers globally to share their skills and make a difference.
Apart from sharing their skills, VSO volunteers are encouraged to learn from colleagues in Tajikistan, explore the rich cultural heritage of the country and gain a broader view of the world. Returned volunteers are often fantastic champions of the country they served in and can play a key role in raising awareness of Tajikistan’s culture, language and nature in the UK and further afield when they return home.
In Tajikistan all VSO’s partnerships and volunteer placements are in the areas of health and enabling disadvantaged people to make a living for themselves. In the health sector, specialist health volunteers are supporting their Tajik colleagues to improve services to marginalised groups including disabled children. In future, VSO plans to work with state bodies and community organisations to assist in the development of more community models of basic and preventative healthcare.
Currently two specialists on natural resource management are sharing their expertise including on effective management of natural resources to minimise risks to lives and livelihoods of natural disasters. Experienced business people will volunteer will share skills on business planning, strategy and enterprise development. Volunteers with expertise on processing and marketing will also support small businesses to become more profitable for disadvantaged communities.
For more information please visit:
http://www.vsointernational.org
