 
Contact Address Details:
Voluntary
Services Overseas
VSO Banjul Head Office
22 Atlantic Road
P.O. Box 667 Banjul
Fajara M Section
The Gambia, West Africa
Tel no: +220 449 5907
449 4026
449 7634
Fax:
449 6946
Email: enquiry@vsoint.org
vso@commit.gm
VSO UK
Headquarters
317 Putney Bridge Road
London,
SW15 2PN
United Kingdom
Main switchboard
+44 (0)20 8780 7200
Email: enquiry@vso.org.uk
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Information:
The
Voluntary Services Overseas is a development charity from
the UK that works through volunteers in job placements. The
VSO has been operating in The Gambia since 1960 and its work
presently focuses on the areas of education, disability and
sustainable livelihoods. It sends qualified professionals
in certain sectors to spend several years working at local
salaries in key, identifiably useful projects in developing
countries.
Disability:
The aim of the programme is to improve the lives of all people
with disabilities in urban and rural areas, through empowerment
and improved services. Through working with
Disabled People’s
Organisations, the 6,600 members of the 9 organisations are
direct beneficiaries of the programme. Of these, about 62%
are male and 38% female. Although the members of the DPOs
have been identified as the main beneficiaries, this programme
will hopefully have a direct or indirect benefit for all people
with disabilities in The Gambia.
Education:
The aim of the programme is to improve the quality of inclusive
primary education for all girls and boys for core class subjects
in rural areas.
The Education programme covers all regions in the Gambia but
there is specific focus given to Region 5 because of VSO’s
role in the implementation of the DFID funded Basic Education
Support for Poverty Reduction (BESPOR) project.
The key beneficiaries are primary school children, serving
teachers and teacher trainees. The implementing partners are
Region 5, Gambia College, BESPOR team and Headquarter Directorates
at DoSE.
Livelihoods:
The aim of the programme is to ensure that disadvantaged people
in rural communities in The Gambia will gain more income and
food security from their current activities.
VSO The Gambia (VSO TG) started working with grassroots organisations
in 1998. Since then it has learned that there is a need to
work closely with viable partners who have good track records
and are committed to addressing the needs of disadvantaged
people in rural communities. Learning from previous development
undertakings has shown that in order to have an impact on
the lives of women, the elderly, youths and the disabled,
it is important to build the capacity of local non-governmental
and community based organisations (NGOs and CBOs) so that
they will be equipped to offer effective and efficient services
to these communities.
Disadvantaged people in the context of the Gambia are women,
the elderly, youths and disabled. Women form the majority
of those that are not literate – who do not have access to
land and are traditionally stereotyped as “second best”. The
elderly tend to be neglected by projects and programmes whilst
rural youths are disadvantaged when compared to urban youths.
There are few higher learning institutions or job opportunities
that result in high rural-to-urban drift. People with disabilities
are not seen as productive members of their communities.
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