Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Students' Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 18. July 30, 1968

Volunteer

Volunteer

Sir—Students at Victoria are often heard lamenting the condition and lack of progress of the peoples in Asia and the Pacific. So much of this is worthless and insincere if it is not backed up with some conscious effort to assist in some way. So many students have a desire to do something yet lack a suitable avenue.

Perhaps one of the most direct and practical ways any one person can help is by serving for a couple of years in the region, under the Volunteer Service Abroad scheme. Most students do not think seriously enough of V.S.A. and the help they can be, and moreover the real benefits they can gain from working in a developing country. Too often the students concept of volunteering is a narrow, negative one, concerned primarily with the loss of finance and of early training in their chosen career. The experience to be gained, which is completely different from any to be hald in New Zealand, is invaluable and can not in any way be equated with loss of earnings at home.

Students, speak to V.S.A. returnees, (there are over 15 at Vic) and question their experience.

There is a lot to be done and a lot to be learnt in Asia and the Pacific.

Philip Morrison,
(V.S.A. Returnee).