Read the latest news and updates from volunteers, partners, and staff across the moana working collectively towards a world with thriving communities.

 

Global Volunteer Standards

At Global Volunteer Standards were launched on 26 October 2021

Read more
Getting Tonga’s crops buzzing

Debra Allan never thought she’d become a beekeeper, but that was before her and Uili Lousi’s concerns about climate change and passion for their Pacific home led them to establish OHAI.

Read more
Upcycling and Recycling in Timor Leste

Adversity drives innovation.

Read more
The Power of Art

Qeto Darcy had always been interested in music and dance.

Read more
Life as an Emergency Doctor

Having worked in Emergency Departments for many years, Dr Mandy Masters is the ideal doctor to be onsite at Northern Provincial Hospital Luganville, developing procedures and training to make the department run efficiently.

Read more
Students Abroad

More than a decade and a half from when he first floated the concept with VSA staff and on the eve of his retirement, Otago University Professor, Tony Binns, looks back on the UniVol programme and the hundreds of students it has placed on development assignments abroad.

Read more
Changes from the Shed

From old shed to state-of-the-art centre for democratic engagement.

Read more
Growing resilience

VSA volunteer Clint Smythe to develop the Cambodia Melon Growers Association in partnership with global development organisation iDE.

Read more
The work before the food is on the plate

With concerns about the potential for an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in Samoa, the nation moving into lockdown, and with no veterinarians available to her team in 2019, Volunteer Service Abroad’s assistance came at the perfect time for Principal Biosecurity, Officer Talei Fidow-Moors.

Read more
Keeping language alive

Kia orana kōtou te ꞌititangata Kuki ꞌAirāni e noʻo nei ki Aotearoa. Noatu ko ai koe pēra katoa, ki ꞌea koe, e ꞌakamāroꞌiroꞌi tātou ki te araara i tō tātou au reo Māori.

Read more
National Volunteer Week 2021

New Zealand Scholarship alumni Liria da Silva is helping to lead innovative approaches to waste management in Timor-Leste.

Read more
Cook Island Volunteers

Kia orana kōtou kātoatoa tei runga i te Vaka. No te Moana-nui-o-Kiva tōku ꞌai tūpuna, nō reira ‘e inarere au mei te moana ē tōna au enua.

Read more
Unexpected doors open when volunteering

Dana MacDiarmid is now a VSA Council Member. How did she get there and what did her volunteer assignment do for her?

Any VSA…

Read more
Tongan diplomatic and volunteer connections celebrated

Rachel Harrison’s experience as a volunteer could have been cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, but instead it led to e-volunteer…

Read more
How volunteering 50 years ago has impacted Chris Hawley's life

50 years ago Chris Hawley took up a VSA assignment at a newly founded university in Khon Kaen, Thailand. An assignment that was…

Read more
Rising to the challenge

For VSA CEO Steve Goodman, the urgency and effect of the pandemic on the organisation’s operations has been profound but has also…

Read more
Partnership with Downer supporting future leaders

Ask Downer Talent Development Manager Ryan Jacobs about the partnership the firm has had with VSA for the past six years and…

Read more
New Zealand and Vanuatu volunteer connections resume

Staff at two of Vanuatu’s key hospitals await the arrival of two medical staff through a programme with Volunteer Service Abroad…

Read more
Sharing the VSA message through community outreach with water professionals in North America

Roanna Purcaru, a VSA returned volunteer, recently completed the prestigious Water Leadership Institute (WLI) program run by the…

Read more
Rich life-long relationships 

20 November 2020

“The first weekend I was in Niue, I assembled my bike and rode around the island.  It was hot in January and…

Read more