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What is VSAConnect?
VSAConnect is VSA's Alumni Association for its Returned Volunteers and their accompanying partners. It is developing an active and vibrant alumni community, where all members can contribute towards building a groundswell of support for VSA across New Zealand. VSAConnect also compliments and supports the role of VSA’s Branches
VSAConnect members are connected through a bimonthly enewsletter and an online platform. Other activities being developed include speaking opportunities for returning volunteers, local get-togethers, connecting with fellow volunteers and sharing development knowledge.
The VSAConnect online platform with log-in and password access directly accessible from VSA’s website is intended to be the foremost forum for returned volunteers to stay in touch with VSA. So if you are already enrolled on the platform go to the log-in page now to reconnect with returned volunteers or obtain your up to date development news and information. You can also discuss topics of interest through online forums, share photos and stories, and find out about upcoming events.
Visit our online platform. If you are enrolled on our online platform, please participate on the platform by—reading; by posting events, articles, photos and stories on the platform; or by adding your comments and reflections to the postings made by other members. Share your knowledge and interests with other returned volunteers. Tell us about your volunteering experience, or past volunteers who you have connected with.
Changes to the online platform
The VSAConnect Working Group undertook an online platform survey last December, which aimed to learn about and understand members’ experience of accessing VSAConnect's platform Big Tent. Survey respondents were mainly interested in reading material which had been posted for them, and said they were unlikely to actively participate online due to lack of time or interest.
The VSAConnect Working Group considered the survey results and decided to make the following changes:
- Establish an area of the VSA website specifically for VSAConnect members to access by login and password. We will to post information about VSAConnect members, events/activities and development information; and members will be able to make comments on these items. Members will also be able to search a list of members’ email addresses so they can directly contact each other.
- Establish a closed Facebook page for VSAConnect members who wish to interact directly with members.
- Continue to produce and circulate the bimonthly VSAConnect E-nius.
We will email all members when these changes have been implemented. Please email us if you wish to comment.
About this enewsletter
The VSAConnect E-nius is circulated to all current VSAConnect members who have supplied email addresses to VSA (just under 500 for this edition). This includes 135 members who have also enrolled on the VSAConnect online platform. (Please email us here to enroll.)
This edition is designed to be viewed either in email or in your browser (if photos are not showing, click the "View this email in your browser" link at the top right-hand corner). It can also be printed straight from email or from your browser.
Please send us your feedback on any item in this edition, or send us new material for the next issue.
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School leaver stories
Archbishop Sir David Moxon, Youth Organiser, Fiji, 1970
We mentioned Sir David’s knighthood in the last VSAConnect E-nius. Here is what he says about his VSA experience. (For the full interview with Archbishop Sir David Moxon, see the next issue of Vista, out in May.)
After Archbishop Sir David Moxon was honoured with his knighthood earlier this year, he reminisced about the lasting impact his time in Fiji as a VSA school leaver has had on his career. On assignment to introduce the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme to Fiji (the scheme is still running), Sir David said his experience “completely reoriented my approach to cultureâ€.
Sir David, who is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See, says being exposed to the Hindu and Muslim communities in Fiji gave him a “healthy respect for other faiths… that turned out to be really valuable.†And while he had a theoretical interest in development and justice, “VSA gave me a gut feeling for that sort of thing. Those things have stayed with me all my life since then.â€
For three years after his return to New Zealand, Sir David was a member of the volunteer selection training team responsible for choosing school leavers. “That was an extraordinary experience, too. It shaped me in discerning character, [doing] job interviews, selecting people for other jobs in later life.â€
In particular, he says, he learnt to look at a candidates actions: “What you really want to know is behavioural patterns and past track record and ability to function under stress.†School leavers coming to the four-day selection process would first be given a physical task which would take a number of hours and require teamwork. “After about the third hour, you start to see who had a short temper, who wasn’t actually capable of being considerate when they were tired, who gave up quickly, and who had resilience.â€
Forty years on, Sir David has been involved in community groups and NGOs dealing with development and justice ever since. From working in youth justice here in New Zealand to his current work to prevent human trafficking, he says, “VSA made me think about these things in a way that I’m still thinking about them now.â€
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Dick and Liz Davison, Livestock Officer and Secretary/Health Assistant, Solomon Islands, 1974/75
VSA – A retrospective 40 years on.
In February 1974 we embarked on our first big adventure together, heading to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. We were in our early 20’s, 8 months married and had left our jobs to spend two years as volunteers without much idea of what that was to be.
Dick worked for the Dept. of Agriculture on a beef cattle project designed to introduce commercial beef cattle farming at a village level. Liz was secretary / health assistant at the Tenaru secondary school. We lived at Ndodo Creek, an agricultural research station on the north coast of Guadalcanal.
We may have done some good. Certainly we met a number of wonderful people, gained an understanding of the challenges of aid to developing communities and learned a lot about ourselves. Solomon Islands has since gained independence and endured substantial unrest which has frustrated the realisation of the considerable opportunities in land and sea based resources.
We returned to New Zealand and have farmed in North Canterbury, raising three daughters and enjoying the benefits of living in a rural community. The learning gained from our time as VSA volunteers and subsequent experiences in and outside New Zealand is the value of co-operation and mutual trust. The Solomon Islanders that we met thought of themselves as Guadalcanal or Malaita etc. people, who then were often jealous and fearful of another language group or tribe. That has sometimes made life difficult in a country which today needs all of its people working together.
Dick has recently been involved in a small village based coffee project in Toraja, Sulawesi in eastern Indonesia. While there are tensions and problems in that place, Indonesia is a nation of some 245 million across a massive archipelago that functions reasonably well. At a very local level, the North Canterbury rural community that we have lived in for 38 years has undergone substantial change, with many newcomers including several from places that we know little about. The good news is that our community has embraced change and in general welcomed the newcomers while retaining many of the strong volunteer networks that ensure that we function well as a society.
The world has changed in many ways since 1974, but the core learning for us is that getting on with your neighbours and rejecting prejudice and ancient animosities is the only way to create a peaceful and productive society. The bitter-sweet reflection on our time in the Solomons is that a wonderful place has suffered from some human intolerance and clan enmity, limiting some potential improvements to health, education and the development of civil society.
For ourselves, VSA was a great experience and privilege; we hope that others can take the opportunity that volunteer effort provides.
Note: Dick is currently a Hurunui District Councillor and a Director of several local organisations and trusts. We was a Nuffield Scholar in 1986
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Focus on Vanuatu
VSA has been working in Vanuatu since 1965. Our volunteers work in five out of Vanuatu’s six provinces. They are helping to strengthen economic development within tourism and agriculture, develop rural vocational education and improve waste management. VSA has a field office in Luganville staffed by a Programme Manager.
Quick facts
- Vanuatu comprises four main islands and 80 smaller islands, about 60 of which are inhabited.
- There is significant volcanic activity, with multiple eruptions in recent years. Yasur, on Tanna Island, is one of the world's most active volcanoes. There are several underwater volcanoes as well.
- Population: 261,565 (37.9% of whom are under 14 years old).
- The economy is based on small-scale agriculture, which provides a living for about two-thirds of the population. Fishing, offshore financial services and tourism are other mainstays.
- Australia and New Zealand are the main suppliers of tourists and foreign aid.
- Main agricultural products are copra, coconuts, cocoa, coffee, taro, yams, fruits, vegetables, beef and fish.
- The capital city is Port Vila.
- Official languages are Bislama (Pidgin), English and French. There are also more than 100 local languages.
- Vanuatu has a Human Development Index rating of 124. (New Zealand has a Human Development Index rating of 6.)
Current assignments in Vanuatu
VSA currently has 14 volunteers in Vanuatu. Click here to view.
Read staff blogs, volunteer blogs and news from Vanuatu here.
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VSA’s Poster street campaign – Connecting people, transforming lives
Where: Auckland (20 street level locations); Christchurch (Five street locations); Wellington (Five street locations).
When: Two week period: 23 March – 6 April 2014
If you live in Wellington, Auckland or Christchurch, you may see some posters promoting VSA on street walls around the CBD or high traffic areas approaching the three cities.
We hope they will drive people to our website where we will tell the stories of the four people featured in the posters and encourage people to ‘be part of it’ by volunteering, supporting us or simply understanding more about our work. We’ll also be promoting the work throughout our social media network and media opportunities as they arise.
This is a great opportunity for all our supporters, including VSAConnect members, to start a conversation with people about VSA’s work in general.
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Fancy another assignment?
Counselling Adviser, Samoa (1 year)
Work with the Samoa Victim Support Group to provide counselling services to survivors of violence, based in Apia.
Nurse Adviser, Tonga (2 years)
Work with The Women and Children Crisis Centre to provide best practice health services to victims of domestic violence, based in Nuku’alofa.
Human Resources Admin Systems Adviser, Papua New Guinea (2 years)
Assist the Nusa Island Retreat to effectively run day to day operations in Kavieng, New Ireland Province.
Applications close Sunday 6th April 2014.
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