Skill

While the school-leavers scheme is developing very well and these young people are doing very good work and are returning devotees of volunteer work, it is the wish of the organisation to develop more fully the graduate aspect of volunteer work.

Volunteers must be well trained in a skill needed in developing communities—builders, nurses, engineers or mechanics, teachers, doctors, dentists, scientific farmers, for example. The idea is to work at your own calling with Asian or Polynesian people and subject to the same conditions; to live as a member of the local community and to find companionship there.

The Job calls for determination, patience, the capacity to learn iron, others and a willingness to forgo some comforts—but, as volunteers returning home are very willing to tell, it is abundantly rewarding.

Volunteers work for government or local authorities or in approved private institutions, such as church schools. Often the host government provides housing and sometimes board or rations as well. If not, the volunteers' allowances cover the cost of these and are enough also for other personal needs. A terminal grant is payable on return home after at least one year's service.

The normal term of engagement is two years. Normally candidates will be single, although married couples without dependent children may be accepted if each partner qualifies as a volunteer.

This article is intended to arouse the interest of students graduating at the end of this year. They should consider volunteering for work in Asia or the Pacific for two years before taking up their careers. If a Victoria graduate were to volunteer his or her services, it would be an added benefit if the students of Victoria, backed by one of the numerous organisations around the campus, could come together, as a community, to sponsor our own volunteer.

The New Zealand Council for Volunteer Service Abroad is associated with the International Secretariat for Volunteer Service, which loosely links similar organisations of 42 countries—Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada. East Germany and Japan included — and volunteers are working throughout the underdeveloped world. However. VSA stands as a distinctly New Zealand organisation and the "Adventure in Neighbourliness" is between us in New Zealand and our neighbours in southern Asia and the Pacific.