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This year, International Women’s Day is calling for a better-balanced world - pushing for an equal gender balance in all areas from governments to media coverage to the workplace. We take tips from five powerful…

In the town of Eiyenkorin in the western Nigerian state of Kwara, ICS staff are taking a breather. They’ve just celebrated 12 months of ICS volunteers’ work in the region. Jack Howson looks at what was achieved …

Nine ICS volunteers headed to Southend-on-Sea in Essex this month to gauge the public’s mood towards fighting global inequality.

Find out what they learnt – then put their tips into…

Growing up as the only deaf child in a hearing family, ICS volunteer Harrison Kariuki, 28, understands the fight for disability rights in Kenya better than most. He’s now devoted his life to educating people…

Do you want to reach out to a wide range of people but aren’t sure how to get people you don’t know to support your fundraising? Well get those buckets at the ready because we’ve got a handy step by step guide to help you get those…

Custom audiences

We occasionally use a “custom audience” program  which enables us to display adverts to our existing supporters and volunteers on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. We provide personal…

Meet Oliver, Nicholaus, Yvonne, Feroze, Alex and Hassan – six members of the ICS team. From Nigeria to Bangladesh, they're delivering our programmes on the ground. Find out their stories – and what 2019 holds for…

So you’ve made it halfway through January. Maybe those personal development goals of being a better person or going to exercise more have had to take a break for a while. Whether you’re on track or not, here are…

So you’ve made it halfway through January. Maybe those noble Veganuary goals have been downgraded. And perhaps those punishing gym promises were a little optimistic. Whether you’re on track or not, here are 19…

Welcome to the New Year - and what an amazing one it's going to be for all you lucky ICS volunteers! However, before you can face the exciting challenges of buying your bus fare in a different language or eating mountains of rice…

If you’re a teenager in Mtwara, Tanzania, getting hold of trustworthy information about sexual health isn’t always easy. But now, thanks to an anonymous text line set up by ICS alumni, the ‘Contraceptive…

Hundreds of volunteers entered. Thirty were shortlisted. Just five won.

From striking shots of a Bangladeshi schoolgirl raising her voice on sexual harassment to the local people on…

19 year old Clemmie Rimmer from Huddersfield wears a prosthesis, but didn’t let this stop her from volunteering on an education project in Nigeria. Here’s her story. 

Of the estimated one billion disabled…

After an ICS placement supporting small businesses in Rwanda, 26-year-old Fidele Gisore was eager to do more. Now working with Challenges Worldwide, Fidele helps bring green energy and clean water to refugees…

Namata Tendo, 26, refuses to watch any more girls married off early in rural western Uganda. In a community where women often have to travel up to 60 miles to seek justice for gender-based violence, Namata has…

Last month I represented ICS at the Global Youth Volunteers Forum in the picture-postcard German city of Augsberg. It’s unusual in that half its population are migrants.

Beth Meadows, 23, cares about ending period poverty. She’s been the lead volunteer with the Liverpool-based branch of national campaigning organisation The Homeless Period since they started up two years ago.…

In its seven decades of work it has prevented conflicts, delivered life-saving humanitarian aid to millions and improved the lives of the poor in all corners of the world.

It came into existence in 1945…

When Sarah Boateng, 24, left the UK to volunteer in her family’s home country of Ghana on a project tackling disability stigma, she didn’t expect a chance encounter to change her career path. Motivated and…

In the summer of 1958, 18-year-old Chris Tipple was about to leave for a trip to Ghana that would go on to define his personal and professional life.  

Chris…

In the UK alone, one in every four people has experienced a mental health problem in the past year. Yet despite this prevalence, the topic is all-too-often overlooked and misunderstood.

While the stigma…

Richard Wheatley, 23, from London, is functionally blind in one eye due to a brain tumour diagnosed at age five. But never one to be put off taking on a challenge, Richard has been using his skills in the…

Patience Bamelikuu, 26, from Ghana, had never played the Paralympic sport of goalball before her International Service ICS placement. What she didn’t realise was how much the sport would change her attitudes…

Nikita Slate, 19, from Leigh-on-Sea, has always refused to let her visual impairment dictate her youth. But a three month volunteering placement with International Service ICS’s goalball project taclking…

We're committed to empowering young people to contribute to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and continue their journey as active citizens after their ICS placement.

We had a goal - to support our…

Want to put the fun in fundraising? Use your hobbies and do what you love to smash your target. ICS volunteers Hailey Shaw and Chloe Bradbury used their different hobbies of football and dance to hang out with friends, reach people…

In Dhaka, public transport is an unpleasant – and often dangerous – experience, especially if you’re a woman or girl.

Bangladeshi volunteer Atika Shafa, 21, is part of a team of 10 ICS…

From those special moments shared with your volunteer counterpart, to celebrating breakthrough successes following weeks of hard work – there’s nothing that offers a better insight into the ICS experience than…

In Battambang, Cambodia, a lack of skills and jobs are forcing young people to migrate to Thailand. Volunteers on VSO Cambodia's ICS programme are changing that. They’re raising awareness of the places where…

What is a youth network?

These are platforms for young people who are enthusiastic about carrying on VSO and ICS development work in their own communities.

The networks are designed and led by…

Lucy Ashton, 22, from Bolton, lives with a visual impairment which doesn’t always make life easy. When she went to volunteer in Sandema, north Ghana, on International Service ICS’ goalball project, REACT, she…

All around the world this month our focus has been on youth. 

We put on 13 events spanning three continents, celebrating the impact of 30,000 volunteers. We saw alumni interviewed on national TV about the…

Young people under 30 make up half the world’s population.

And the problems facing the world in the years to come will be ours to solve. 

From July through and past Youth Day in…

In the dusty town of Machakos, just south of Nairobi, disability is a dirty word.

Parents hide their disabled children at home, teachers are put off taking jobs at special needs schools for fear of…

Work with a charity abroad

International Citizen Service (ICS) is a UK Government-funded programme that supports young people aged 18-25 to volunteer with a charity overseas. 

The projects you will be…

Gladys Muthara, 29, and Susan Waruingi, 26, are Kenyan gender-based violence (GBV) campaigners. Thanks to the ICV Alumni Grant, they ran a year of workshops with teenage survivors of violence in the slums of…

In northern Ghana, stigma around disability makes life challenging for people with visual impairments. We decided to bring together a team of fully-sighted and visually-impaired volunteers to see what we could do…

Harrison Kariuki, 28, is a teacher and was part of VSO ICS’s all-deaf placement, Deafway, in 2016. Currently a volunteer at Kapsabet School for the Deaf in the west of the country, he's using sign language to…

Volunteering isn't easy. And ICS definitely isn't a holiday.

On your placement you'll be pushed out of your comfort zone. You'll do things you never thought possible. But when your placement's over, you'…

Grace Munini, 59, lives in Loitokitok, southern Kenya, with her husband Ruben. Her four grown-up children now have families of their own, and she has opened her home to participants of ICS.

Mama Helen, as…