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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…

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”- Aaron Siskind, American photographer.

We're…

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…

We’re attending the Global Youth Volunteers Forum 2018 in Augsburg, Germany this October.  

The theme is ‘Youth Volunteers Shaping the Future’. We’ve chosen three volunteers - two UK, and one Kenyan - to…

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…

Every year we a global series of events throughout July and August to celebrate International Youth Day - read more about 2019's highlights.

This year, our UK event, held in London on …

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…

It's always about the people, isn't it? 

On ICS, you'll meet people on your team, in your host home, in the communities you work with and staff from a different part of the world. You'll see that somethings are exactly the…

ICS volunteer April Quigley absolutely smashed her £800 fundraising target to raise a whopping £1245 before her placement with Raleigh in Nepal. Check out how she did it and her top tips to help you reach your own goal.…

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In 2017, VSO’s International Board recruited two Youth Advisers, young returned ICS volunteers with personal experience of VSO’s programming – Takyiwa Danso, 25 from the UK, and Felix Owino, 26, from Kenya – both…

The first thing you need to know about goalball is that it's not just for the visually impaired.

What is goalball?

It’s a team sport in which a ball containing a bell is thrown at the opposing team’s…

So you’ve created your JustGiving page, and now it’s time to share it... But wait, you’re feeling shy? Cheeky? Embarrassed? Nervous?

It's natural to feel this if you’ve never fundraised before, but this 5 step guide will…

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about my experience as an ICS team leader and how it’s shaped who I’ve gone on to become. I’ve been a confident person for as long as I can remember – but I wouldn’t say being in a leadership role…

I spent 12 weeks volunteering in Cambodia this year. Here’s a glimpse from my time there in photos.

For almost 700,000 refugees, Cox’s Bazar in eastern Bangladesh is all they have to call home. For those arriving – with more than half being children – lasting trauma and a lack of education continues to define…

Fundraising can be a daunting experience (we hear ya!). But, we’re lucky over at ICS HQ because we get to hear stories of inspirational volunteers achieving the one thing they thought they couldn’t and hitting (or often exceeding)…

On July 24, 2018, The UK Department for International Development and the Government of Kenya will jointly host the first-ever Global Disability Summit in London.

ICS will be there ensuring that young…

More than a quarter of the world’s countries belong to the Commonwealth.

It’s a diverse network that spans the global north and south. It’s a unique platform that can influence decisions affecting a huge…

I live in Uganda. As a woman here, 60% of us have experienced violence in our lifetime. One in five of us have suffered physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in the last year. And one in four in…

It’s that time of year again! A year of skipping lectures to have a lovely lie in and putting off essays to the last minute comes back to bite. EXAMS!! But, fear not! With a little careful planning and creativity there’s no reason…

At 18, Keah Mcilwain was volunteering with ICS in Nepal when the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the remote village of Sotipasal, in the central district of Lamjung. Keah and her fellow volunteers…

Sign up below to register for tickets Global Citizen Live on 17 April at the 02 Academy Brixton in London.

Tickets are allocated on a first come first serve basis. 

 

Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately all…

Before I volunteered with VSO ICS in 2015, I was completely lost.

I had no sense of direction, no focus, and the future for me was blurred. Although I’d graduated from university, I didn’t know where to…

Your story is more likely to be published in your local media if you provide up to three images with your press release, in which you can be clearly seen. 

Please upload your photos to Imgur or a similar…

Every year the WOW Festival at London’s Southbank brings together some of the world’s most inspiring women to take a closer look at the issues affecting women globally and celebrate the leaps being made to tackle…

© Bright Bosu-Tekpor Bright installed a well in his local community to ensure they have access to safe…

VSO ICS alumni Deborah Torr, 24, never expected the light-hearted water saving campaign she started while at university to attract so much international media attention.

Sign up below to register for tickets Global Citizen Live on 17th April at the 02 Academy Brixton in London.

Tickets are allocated on a first come first serve basis. 

Thanks for registering your place for the ICS Celebration Event on 12 Aug in Birmingham.

We'll be announcing more details by email over the next month as our youth steering group decide the details.…

So this is it. You’ve got your ICS place, you smashed the assessment day and even managed to get your vaccinations without too much of a fuss. You feel invincible!

Then you take a look at your Just Giving page and it’s not…

When you think of a board of trustees, what image comes to mind? A middle-aged white man?

Well, that’s grounded in some truth. A 2017 study looking at charity trusteeships in the UK found that of 3,500…

When Nigerian ICS volunteer Kenechukwu 'KC' Ogbuagu, 25, started West Africa’s first board game convention back in 2016, he knew he was onto something big. Two years and his first crowdfunded event later and he’s…

© ICS / VSO / Peter Caton Volunteer Samira's found her calling in supporting the voiceless…

Returning volunteers can get support from their sending agency. If you need to re-connect with your sending agency you can find contact details below:

Raleigh International

Raleigh International contact page

Tel: +…

Get some inspiration for your Action at Home:

While on ICS you’ll have found yourself getting passionate about causes that matter to you. It’s important that when you get home this passion doesn’t stop.

Raising awareness about international, national and local issues…

So you’re back home after your placement and raring to go! Well, fundraising is one of the best ways to support a charity you care about. And there’s no doubt you can do it – you’ve already fundraised for your…

Are you a budding entrepreneur? Do you want to change the world for the better? Why not start a social enterprise.

Social enterprises tackle social and environmental issues with commercial strategies –…

As you’ll know from your own placement, volunteering is a great way to work directly with those affected by local issues. It’s really rewarding to make a difference to the lives of those in your home community as…