Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-r4mrb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-06T09:10:57.237Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction - Western Volunteers and the Rise of the Humanitarian-Development Complex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2021

Agnieszka Sobocinska
Agnieszka Sobocinska
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
Get access

Summary

In September 1964, eighteen-year-old Helen Rosenberg departed the English seaside town of Worthing to take up a volunteer posting in the township of Abeokuta, some fifty miles north of Lagos in Nigeria. Helen had joined Voluntary Service Overseas (commonly known by its abbreviation, VSO) immediately after high school; now she was to be Senior Science Teacher at Abeokuta Girls’ Grammar School. Helen’s acceptance into VSO had caused great excitement at home. Not only was volunteering abroad “obviously glamorous and exotic,” the London Daily Mail enthused, but “few … can fail to be inspired by what our young men and women are doing in all parts of the world.”1

Type
Chapter
Information
Saving the World?
Western Volunteers and the Rise of the Humanitarian-Development Complex
 , pp. 1 - 30
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×