Resource library

A presenter at Radio Instruction (Tanzania - Education)

The CUSO-VSO resource library is an online hub of publications, podcasts and videos on development issues and development volunteers. 

blog iconYou can also read volunteer blogs and our Life-Changing Stories to learn first-hand what's it like to volunteer abroad – and about the impact they make on the ground.

Audio podcasts

podcast iconThese original audio podcasts and radio documentaries explore global development issues and international volunteering.

  • CUSO-VSO Podcast Network – Tune into CUSO-VSO's podcast channels to hear the views and stories of volunteers, staff, alumni and development thinkers, plus listen to short documentaries on international development issues. (2008+)

  • An interview with the E.D. of CUSO-VSO – Derek Evans, the executive director of CUSO-VSO, sits down with CUSO-VSO communications staff Sean Kelly to discuss the changing face of international volunteering. (15mins; 2009)

Video podcasts

video iconWatch our original videos on various global and volunteering issues. Check out our YouTube channel for a full slate of videos that we hope inspire and inform.

  • Video PSA – watch our 30-second video PSA. (2010) 

  • Brothel Justice – this video explores the lives of sex workers in Bangladesh, their daily realities, how they survive the slums, and the steps they are taking to protect their rights and make change. (2008)

  • We Are Together – a video look at national volunteers in Cameroon, and how VSO International volunteers are supporting them. (2008)

  • Impactful Volunteering – a video featuring interviews with some of the earliest Canadian overseas volunteers, as they wonder if international volunteering actually makes an impact. (2008) 

Publications and reports

stories iconsHere is a selection of publications on global issues and international volunteerism created by CUSO-VSO staff, volunteers and partner groups.

  • Catalyst newsletter (latest edition opens up in a separate window as an online publication) – a twice-yearly newsletter that includes stories on CUSO-VSO volunteers, as well as information on the global projects that members of VSO International are engaged in.

  • Impact newsletter - Impact News is produced for CUSO-VSO's dedicated donors, highlighting the impact donations have on the ground in over 40 countries worldwide. Features information on overseas volunteers and development projects.

  • 10-point Agenda to End Poverty - CUSO-VSO is a member of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation, which has published it's agenda on how to end global poverty (2009; PDF; 2MB).

  • River of Life – a peer-reviewed online journal dedicated to international development through volunteer work, collects, shares, and celebrates the successes of international volunteers. (2009+)

Returned volunteer books

stories iconsMany CUSO, VSO and CUSO-VSO returned volunteers go on to write books on their overseas experiences. Here are just a few. Let us know if you have published a book based on your volunteer posting.

  • Bangladesh: The Bradt Travel Guide by Mikey Leung. An authoritative gateway to the lesser-explored regions of Bangladesh, this guidebook offers greater coverage than any other to the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where 13 different ethnic groups live amid breezy hillside scenery, and to the world's largest mangrove forest at the Sunderbans (where Bengal tigers occasionally chew on a human or two). With a focus on responsible tourism, it leads trailblazing travellers to those aspects of the country that are almost unknown to visitors. Written by a volunteer with VSO International. 

  • Poverty and Promise: One Volunteer's Experience of Kenya by Cindi Brown. This award-winning book chronicles the experiences of a VSO volunteer serving in Kisumu, in western Kenya, the birthplace of Barack Obama's father. Published through Just One Voice, all proceeds from the sale of "Poverty and Promise" go to assist rural Kenyans with agribusiness set-up and animal husbandry training, including instruction in raising cows, goats, and poultry.

  • The Unforgiving Tides by Dr. Ross Pennie. The true story of Dr. Ross Pennie’s two-year posting as a medical volunteer on a remote island in the South Pacific. He sets off at age 25 with his diploma’s ink barely dry and his heart afire with tales of the South Seas, Captain Cook, Robinson Crusoe, the Bounty.  For the next two years, the young Dr. Pennie, re-christened Dokta, struggles on Papua New Guinea as much against his own inadequacies as with the medical crises presented to him. 

  • E is for Ethiopia by VSO volunteers Lori Prodan and Keith Holmes. This rhyming alphabet book will appeal to both children and adults. With thirty-two pages of full colour photographs, this book is a unique journey through Ethiopian life and culture. It is a perfect introduction for someone learning about Ethiopia for the first time, or a beautiful book for those familiar with this land.

  • Letters Home: Glimpses of a CUSO Cooperant’s Life in Nigeria by Andy Buhler. The Canadian volunteer had ventured to Nigeria as an “idealistic young medical lab tech.” His experiences led him to write two books of reflections from his time first in Northern Nigeria (1969–70), and then Southern Nigeria (1970–71). Volume One describes experiences in, and around, the ancient, walled city of Kano. Volume Two describes the author’s experiences in and around Ogwashi-Uku, a community near the border of what had briefly been Biafra.

  • Desire for Development: Whiteness, Gender, and the Helping Imperative by CUSO cooperant alumnus (Zambia, 1981–83) and past CUSO staff (1984–92) Barbara Heron. The book is about the experiences of Canadian women who are drawn to development work in a context of North-South power relations. The imperative that Canadians and other Northerners, especially women, feel to engage with ‘development’ elsewhere in the world is charted and explained.

  • My Life Among the Paniyas of the Nilgiri Hills by CUSO cooperant alumnus Hans-Henning Mündel. The book is written primarily in the form of a diary, based on letters he wrote in 1966-67 to then-fiancée and subsequently wife Bev, as well as to his parents. He was overseas as a CUSO volunteer, working for a local NGO as the first Farm Manager of a tribal settlement scheme for 25 families of the Paniya hill tribe in India. Mündel also updates the current situation of the settlement, and reflects on a generation of development.

  • Sawdust in my Gotches by Gerri Parsons - this is the tale of a city girl turned sawmiller, and includes the story of the author and her husband's CUSO volunteer placement in Papua New Guinea, where they started a sawmill for a local tribal community.

  • Buttertea at Sunrise by Britta Das - this is a travel memoir by a volunteer physiotherapist posted by VSO to the mysterious kingdom of Bhutan, which has been isolated from the rest of the world for many centuries.

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