Aims

A quote from Sir Edmund Hillary, who himself is presently working for the Sherpas in Nepal, sums up the aims and benefits of VSA admirably:

"VSA gives suitable New Zealanders the opportunity to go overseas to developing countries to work with their hands and use their experience. It is not a large-scale project where the workers from abroad are divorced from the people of the country.

"It is essentially person-to-person contact between the people of the country and the volunteers. They contribute something, you contribute something, and the whole Job becomes worthwhile. You are getting Just as much out of it as the people you are helping. This is of enormous benefit to the volunteers."