Our organization
CUSO-VSO was created in 2008 from the merger of two development agencies with respected records of impact in volunteer-sending.
CUSO was founded in 1961, originally as Canadian University Service Overseas. Voluntary Service Overseas Canada started in 1995. Combined, they placed some 15,000 volunteers in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Americas, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. Read about our history.
Global reach, grassroots impact
CUSO-VSO is the North American member of VSO International, a worldwide federation of Voluntary Service Organizations based in the UK, the Netherlands, Kenya and the Philippines, as well as Canada. Volunteers are also recruited from the United States (through CUSO-VSO), India (IVO), Ireland (VSO Ireland), Uganda (VSO Jitolee) and Australia (AVI), and from several developing countries with VSO programs. Approximately one-quarter of VSO volunteers are from the developing world.
These VSO agencies make up the world's largest non-governmental development network that works through volunteers. Collectively, the members of VSO International have placed over 45,000 volunteers since 1958.
Volunteer voices
Want to know firsthand what it's like to volunteer with CUSO-VSO and VSO International? Read the blogs of some of our current volunteers. They provide a unique insight to the life and experiences of an overseas volunteer
