Britain's
Voluntary Service
Overseas organisation, VSO, was founded
after this letter to The Sunday Times
[The
Sunday Times (London) March 23 1958]
Letters
to the Editor
- The
Year Between
From
THE BISHOP OF PORTSMOUTH
SIR -
The interest occasioned by the Prime Minister's
Commonwealth tour and the concern expressed generally
that there should be a greater realisation of
Commonwealth ties lead me to suggest that there is a
simple way by which this link could be made more
real.
A
number of headmasters in this country are very much
aware that many of their senior boys including the
most gifted are having to wait a year (in some cases
even longer) before vacancies become available in
universities and in technical training. So many of
these young people have something very worthwhile to
give; but where and how?
It
is, I submit, the underdeveloped territories of the
Commonwealth that today offer opportunities of
service that would not only make a positive
contribution to those countries but would constitute
an experience of inestimable benefit to many of our
young people. Such service given over limited periods
and often under hard or strange conditions would
provide interesting and adventurous opportunities to
put gifts to useful purpose and to gain experience.
I
know of urgent appeals from Sarawak, from Uganda and
from West Africa - not for money but for volunteer
assistance - in the field of primary teaching, youth
work, community development, adult education and
social welfare generally, where a readiness to give
service would not only be of value in itself, but
could act as an inspiration to the young people of
these countries.
The
projects overseas that I have in mind - some
governmental, some missionary, some the
responsibility of social service councils - do not
postulate specialist skills so much as a readiness to
work alongside the local people: their need is
urgent, just because of the new problems arising in
this period of transition to self-government.
Equally
urgent is the need for the best of our young people -
in their difficult period of transition before
university or career - to have the opportunity of
doing something worth while, where it is most
genuinely needed, and seeing a bit of the world into
the bargain. If, as I believe, there will be no
difficulty in finding volunteers, it will be
necessary for some body - or bodies - to accept
responsibility for three things: for selecting
suitable boys and suitable projects, for finding
travelling expenses, and for ensuring that at the
other end there is someone who will meet the boys and
set them on the right road.
Is it
beyond our organisational capacity to unite these
needs?
Launcelot
Portsmouth
Fareham
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Read about Voluntary Service
Overseas, VSO forty years on
